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AN 

UNCLE FROM INDIA 

(A Bargain in Souls) 


AN IMPOSSIBLE STORY 



ERNEST DE LANCEY PIERSON 



PZ3 


Kntered according: to Act of Congress, in the year 
eighteen hundred and ninety-one, 

By laird & LEE, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 

Copyright, 1897, by Wm. H. Lee. 


To 


The newly married young people 
of America 

This lesson in conjugal content 
is addressed and inscribed 
By the Author. 







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CONTENTS. 

I A Divided House 11 

II Tlie Mummy’s Secret 36 

III By Morning Light 60 

IV The Editor’s Busy Day 88 

V Great Tribulations 118 

VI In Peril 145 

VII A New Quixote 177 

VIII Two Tete-a-Tetes 215 

IX They Agree to Agree 245 


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5 '^ 53 ‘10 i 


I 

A DIVIDED HOUSE 

** There it goes again,” cried the young 
man, dashing down his pen angrily. “How 
is it possible to read or write or think in such 
a neighborhood ? This comes of living with 
a church on one side, and a concert-saloon 
directly opposite.” 

Through the open window drifted the 
music of an organ, and subdued voices sing- 
ing a hymn : 

“ There’s a land that is fairer than day. 

And by grace we can see it afar.” 

Then a terrible piano across the way routed 
the church choir, while a dozen beery voices 

roared out the refrain, 

11 


12 


A Bargain in Souls 


“ For we’ve both been there before ; 

Many a time, many a time,” 
accompanied by the banging of beer glasses 
and the shouts of the waiters. 

“I’ll complain about that concert-saloon 
to-morrow to the police,” muttered the 
young man, walking up and down the room 
with a scowl on his face. “ A hymn is all 
very well in its place, but I prefer mine 
unadulterated with Bowery songs. I believe 
the proprietor of that den across the way has 
a private grudge against me because I once 
wrote him up in the ‘ Evening Owl,’ and he 
takes every opportunity to worry me. I 
never sit down with Nita for a chat of an 
evening but that monster at the piano begins 
to howl, ‘Pull down the blinds,’ or some 
other vulgarly suggestive song ; and when we 
had a little difference of opinion the other 
night, he roared for an hour, 

“ * Is marriage a failure? 

Oh, yes, it’s a failure,*” 

until Nita actually accused me of having 
hired the wretch to worry her. But, by the 


A Divided House 


13 


way, where is Nita?” — looking at his watch. 
‘‘ Ten o’clock, and no signs of her yet ! For 
a young lady who complains that she never 
has any liberty, this is doing pretty well. I 
only wish I could afford to lead such an idle, 
luxurious life ; but that’s the penalty of being 
a husband — a married martyr ! ” 

Just then the slamming of the street-door 
sounded, and the rustje of a woman’s dress 
was heard in the hall. A young lady in 
evening costume pushed aside the portiere 
and entered the drawing-room. 

‘‘ Ah, you have come home, Arthur,” 
throwing off her opera-cloak with a careless 
gesture, and sinking down in a corner of the 
sofa wearily. 

*‘Ihave been home all the evening,” he 
said, severely, “ but I have not had the 
pleasure of seeing you since breakfast. I 
cannot for the life of me see the use of keep- 
ing up an expensive home, since you are 
never in it; we might better take cheap 
lodgings and save the reftt.” 

“You are in a very disagreeable mood, 


14 A Bargain in Souls 

Arthur,” pushing back a wisp of gold-brown 
hair from her forehead with an impatient 
gesture. “ You know very well I had work 
to-day at the convention.” 

‘‘ Work,” he echoed. “ You call it work to 
gossip and waste your time with a crowd of 
snuffy old women, who fill your head with 
ideas how to make home unhappy. Do you 
think it proper for a young married woman 
to be wandering about the city alone at this 
time of the night ? ” 

“ I was not alone ! Mr. Moggridge, the 
secretary of the Female Freedom Society, 
accompanied me as far as the door.” 

“ As if that creature counted ! He found 
out that he was a failure as a man, so now he 
tacks himself to the opposite sex as a cham- 
pion of woman. I pity any cause that has 
such an advocate ! ” He stood, twisting his 
mustache with his long, white fingers, as if 
he would like to say more, but hesitated. 
“ It is just like this, Nita,” he said, at length : 
“ you will certainly get talked about if you 
insist on roaming about the city at night in 


A Divided House 


15 


this unconventional fashion. The line must 
be drawn somewhere. There are certain 
social laws that a married woman is bound 
to respect. If you had no intention of obey- 
ing them, well ! you should never have mar- 
ried. I allow you all the liberty I can, in 
justice to myself; but now that you have 
taken the law in your own hands and go out 
of an evening alone, without even a word to 
me, I most seriously object. I don’t want to 
speak unkindly, but for your own sake, as 
well as mine, it must stop right here.” 

‘‘Eeally?” said Mrs. Vaness, raising her 
delicately pencilled eyebrows, while a frown 
contracted her smooth forehead. “I sup- 
pose I must now listen to an eloquent 
harangue on wifely duty. For what we are 
about to receive, may the Lord make us 
truly thankful! Do I ask embarrassing 
questions when you come home late, with an 
aromatic odor on your breath ? You say you 
have been to the club, and I have no reason 
to disbelieve you. Well, I have my club, 
too, and one where they do not smoke or 


16 


A Bargain in Souls 


drink, or abuse their neighbors ! Would you 
have me sit here all the evening alone, or 
entertain some of your stupid friends? I 
don’t see why I should not be allowed to 
amuse myself in my own quiet way, since 
you are absent most of the time. Arthur, 
you ought to have lived in the middle ages, 
when you would have been free to shut your 
wife up in a tall tower, with a slave and a 
lute.” 

She relapsed into silence, pulling at the 
fringe on her dress with nervous fingers. 

“ I don’t know what to make of you, Nita,” 
he said, thoroughly irritated. “ You have 
certainly every reason to be contented with 
life— a happy hon>e, all the comforts, and 
iVery reasonable enjoyment. Surely when 
jl took you away from Cozzen’s Corners, 
where a church fair was considered a great 
social event, you had not imbibed such 
strange ideas regarding a wife’s liberty.” 

“ I was a child then,” she said, bitterly ; 
“I am a woman now. I have ambitions 
that you should aid me to gratify. How can 


A Divided House 


17 


I be contented to make rag carpets and 
embroider slippers, when my soul is strug- 
gling to soar above the crowd ? I am tired 
of being a nobody; I want to rise, to be 
famous.” 

“ That’s all very well,” said the husband, 
drily ; “ but do you go the right way about 
it? Take care that you don’t fall before 
you are half-way up. You don’t seem to 
understand that you must pay some defer- 
ence to the conventional laws of society. 
Now you are a woman — ” 

“ I am not liable to forget the fact as long 
as you are here to remind me,” broke in the 
wife, impetuously ; “ and it is because I am 
a woman that you want me to go about with 
a ball and chain for the rest of my days. 
That’s the life a model wife ought to lead, in 
your opinion, wearing a wedding ring as a 
badge of servility. I wonder you did not 
think of engaging a housekeeper. You will 
find many who advertise in your own 
paper. It would be much less expense, and 
you could arrange her coming and going to 


18 A Bargain in Souls 

suit your lordly will. I ruin my complexion 
superintending the cooking of your meals, 
and shout myself hoarse ordering your ser- 
vants about, while you are idling in hotels or 
playing cards at the club ; and yet you think 
I am allowed too much liberty ! Liberty, 
indeed ! Why, the serfs of the feudal ages 
enjoyed more privileges than the wife of 
to-day;’’ and she uttered a plaintive sob, 
and hid her face in a tiny lace handkerchief. 

Arthur Vaness looked at the crinkled heap 
of silk on the sofa, and was undecided 
whether to laugh or wait until the storm had 
subsided and her pretty face was again 
smooth and composed. He had become ac- 
customed of late to these local squalls, and 
knew that just now his wife was tired and 
irritated. After all, it was the best policy to 
remain calm, and attempt to pacify her. 

“ I had no idea your life was such a burden,” 
he said gently, as he seated himself by her 
side and began smoothing her hair softly 
with his fingers. “ If you are so overworked, 
I must see about getting another servant ; 


A ^Divided House 


19 


but surely the care of a little house like this, 
and only two people — ” 

“You look at everything from a man’s 
standpoint,” drying her eyes and brushing 
aw'ay his hand impatiently. “ If you were 
not so wrapped up in your own personal 
pleasures, you would see that the work here 
is never finished. But as you are away en- 
joying yourself most of the time — ” 

“ My dear, you seem to forget that I have 
my editorial duties on ‘ The Evening Owl.’ ” 
“ As if any one would think of calling that 
work! Haven’t. I seen you day after day 
getting that paper ready ? Why, it’s nothing 
but amusement to edit an evening journal. 
You go down to the office, and smoke and 
gossip and read the papers. You have a sec- 
retary to answer all your correspondence, 
and thirty or forty men to do all the work and 
supply all the ideas, while you get the credit 
for the brains. I don’t see how you spend a 
whole day over that. It seems to me I could 
accomplish as much in an hour or two— and 
I am only a woman !” with bitter emphasis. 


20 


A Bargain hi Souls 


“ Under the pretense of gathering news and 
meeting politicians you frequent the hotels 
and cafes every afternoon, imbibing more 
views of mixed drinks and free lunches than 
you do of the affairs of the country. No 
wonder that the daily papers savor of the 
bar-room and are unfit for a woman to read. 
Nothing but a muddle of divorce suits, mur- 
ders and prize-fights. I should like to have 
the direction of a newspaper if only for a 
week just to show the public what a woman 
could do. It would be a journal with a no- 
ble aim where every article was not impreg- 
nated with an odor of cloves and free-lunch.” 

Vaness laughed in the most provoking man- 
ner. “ If it was not such an expensive ex- 
periment I should just like to have you take 
my place for a time’’ with a twinkle in his 
eye. A week I think would be quite enough 
both for you and the subscribers.” 

“ Indeed ! ” with an indignant little sniff, 
“ I suppose because I have the misfortune to 
be a woman you think I would fail. That 
hateful name to you is synonymous with 


A Divided House 


21 


defeat in any enterprise. Never mind, we 
shall have the lastlangh. Our day of eman- 
cipation has been long delayed, but the gov- 
ernment which freed the black slaves will 
some day free the white. Then you will be 
forced to treat us on an equal footing, to 
acknowledge our rights and the justice and 
equity of our demands. Then we can prove 
the superiority of our minds over yours.” 

“ Bravo ! ” cried Vaness, applauding 
loudly, “ I had no idea that you were such a 
profound little orator. These brilliant ideas 
you must have gathered at your Convention 
of Cranks, where they fill your little head 
full of nonsense, and teach you the fine art 
of being miserable and discontented, and 
making everybody else around you the same. 
Well, when is this millennium to dawn, and 
what profession have you chosen with which 
to startle a waiting world 

“ I intend to be a journalist,” said Nita, 
placidly. “ There is no other profession that 
has fallen into such disrepute. It will be 
my work to revolutionize and purify it. I 


22 


A Bargain in Souls 


have already compiled a little book of notes 
to direct me when the opportunity arrives. 
It will be the work of many years to cleanse 
the journalistic shambles where truth and 
justice have been ignominiously slain, but I 
have the heart and courage for the task.” 

“ Indeed ! ” said Vaness, eyeing the slight 
and shapely figure of his wife a little 
dubiously. ‘‘ Well, Fm sure I’ve no objec- 
tion — not the slightest.” 

Oh, I don’t suppose I could ever convince 
you that I was capable of accomplishing any 
really great wm'k ! ” with an angry flush on 
her cheek. “It is your business to scoff at 
a woman’s ambitions, and sneer at her pro- 
jects. When you are forced to acknowledge 
us as your equals, if not superiors, in intel- 
lect, there will be a marked change in your 
demeanor. When you have been relegated 
to a back seat in the affairs of life, you will 
understand what burdens we have been 
compelled to bear, these many centuries of 
slavery. Your success has been in denying 
us power; in keeping us in subjection; and 


A Divided House 


23 


in your heart of hearts you dread the day 
when the eyes of woman shall be opened, 
and instead of being ruled she shall rule.’’ 

“ Oh, let’s go to bed ! ” said Vaness, with 
difficulty suppressing a yawn. 

‘‘ I have no doubt the subject is unpleas- 
ant to you,” murmured Nita, with a pathetic 
little sob, quite exhausted by her eloquence. 

“ My dear, another time I shall be glad to 
listen to you. But the hour is late,” looking 
at his watch. “I am very tired, and as I 
must arrange the Sunday supplement to- 
morrow, I want to get a good night’s sleep. 

‘‘ If you had any confidence in me at all,” 
she pouted, “you would let me help you. 
I’m sure I could get up a very interesting 
paper, and it wouldn’t be filled with nasty 
politics.” 

“ Those nasty politics are what makes a 
journal sell,” he said, good naturedly. 

“Well, why don’t you try to educate them 
up to liking something better. Even pigs 
can be taught to play cards and tell the time 
of day. Why don’t you try to lift your 


24 A Bargai7i in Souls 

readers’ heads above the trough, instead of 
wallowing with them. What is the press 
for unless it can elevate the masses? Culti- 
vate in them a taste for higher things,” 

‘‘What! and lose all my subscription list 
in the meantime ? I should be elevating the 
readers and flooring myself. My dear, you 
are a very charming little woman, and in 
most matters a very sensible little head; 
but just now you are talking about some- 
thing of w^hich you are profoundly ignorant.” 

“And you are quite satisfled to keep me 
in the dark on that as well as many other 
subjects. Well, never mind, I am content 
to wait for the day when I can learn for 
myself.” 

“ And until that day arrives, let us post- 
pone the conversation,” said Arthur. 
“ What was that ? ” as a terrible thud shook 
the ceiling above, and set all the lustres 
tinkling. 

“ You ought to be accustomed to the sound 
by this time,” said his wife; “that is the 
usual signal that Uncle Oliver gives when 


A Divided Hause 


25 


he is going to bed. He always bangs his 
boots on the floor, as if to remind ns that he 
is still in the house. Just as if we could 
ever forget the fact ! ’’ 

‘‘ I’m sure he is a very quiet, inoffensive 
old gentleman,” said Vaness. ‘‘He does 
not even come downstairs to his meals, he is 
so much absorbed in the great work he is 
writing on, ‘ Black Magic.’ ” 

“Black humbug!” retorted Nita. “For 
my part, I don’t believe he is engaged in 
writing anything, but spends his days like a 
quack doctor, compounding horrible mix- 
tures. I wonder the Board of Health has 
not indicted this house as a public nuisance, 
filled as it is all day with horrible smoke 
and smells. Some day while he is experi- 
menting he will blow the roof off our heads, 
and then what good will the petrified cats 
and musty mummies be to you ? ” 

“ I can’t understand,” said Vaness, “ why 
you have disliked that poor old chap from 
the first. We had a pitched battle when I 
offered him a home here, and you have 


26 


A Bargain in Souts 


shown your distaste for him ever since. I 
*am sure he must have heard you more than 
once talking disrespectfully about him.’’ 

“ I hope he has. Perhaps he will take the 
hint, and look up another home where he 
will be more appreciated.” 

‘‘It would not be wise, ’’said Vaness, smil- 
ing, “ to draw down the vengeance of a 
savant so versed in occult lore. Why, he 
might transform you into a cat or a fire-dog, 
and then wouldn’t you be sorry that you had 
treated him unkindly ? ” 

“ I am not in the least alarmed about his 
possible vengeance,” said Nita. “ He is 
more adept in compounding smells than 
spells. Mark my words, but that poor 
Indian servant will be a corpse before the 
season is over. Do you know that Uncle 
Oliver tries his elixirs on that unhappy man 
several times a day, in order to study its 
effects? That poor, coffee-colored man 
changes like a chameleon, and his digestion 
is completely ruined. Whatever prompted 
you, Arthur, to offer a home to that miser- 


A Divided House 


27 


able old mummy, with his pickled snakes 
and lop-eared gods, to whom, I dare say, he 
sacrifices in secret ! I’m sure, if you do 
inherit some day all those horrid things in 
bottles, it will never repay you for being 
bothered by him so long.” 

“You talk very selfishly,” said Arthur, 
now thoroughly angry. “If you thought 
less of yourself, and more of the comfort of 
those around you, you would not be so dis- 
contented. Uncle Oliver is one of my near- 
est relatives, and it was very natural, as he 
has no family, that I should offer him a 
home on his return from the East. Eeally, 
to judge from your conversation to-night, it 
is high time that you cut loose from your 
new acquaintances who fill your pretty head 
with absurd and selfish ideas. You used to 
be a kind-hearted, sensible little woman, 
but since you have joined this company of 
cranks I don’t know what to make of you. 
This state of affairs cannot go on. I am 
worn out with overwork, and at home I hear 
nothing but complaints and tears. If any- 


28 


A Bargain in Souls 

one has a right to murmur, I am the one. I 
have tried to make your life happy, but it 
seems I have failed. You find more enjoy- 
ment in the company of these precious med- 
dlers than you do at home with your husband. 
I am heartily sick of it all. I wish — I wish 
I could change places with somebody, and 
forget that newspapers ever existed.” 

He leaned his face on his hands, and for a 
moment neither spoke a word. 

At length Nita raised her head. 

‘‘And if you are discontented with life, how 
much harder is the lot of a woman ! You 
are not perpetually reminded that you must 
not do this or that because it is wrong. You 
come and go as you will, and there is no one 
to bid you stay. You may dance and flirt 
with whom you will. You can go about the 
world breaking hearts, as if they were so 
many egg-shells, while we are left at home to 
amuse ourselves as best we may. For you 
the light; for us the night. Oh, if I were 
only a man, you would never hear a word of 
complaint from my lips 1 ” 


A Divided House 


29 


“Well, there is not the slightest possibility 
of your becoming a man, ” said Vaness, sar- 
castically ; “ so you may as well resign your- 
self to being an ordinary woman, and, let us 
hope, a sensible one.” 

“ What is impossible ? ” exclaimed a voice, 
with an audible chuckle that made husband 
and wife start guiltily. 

The curtains parted, and a lean old man, 
clad in a long dressing-gown of some Eastern 
tissue, stepped across the threshold. His 
saffron features, wrinkled as a walnut-shell, 
were corrugated just now in a benevolent 
smile that displayed his sharp, uneven teeth. 
His yellow- white hair descended in long ring- 
lets from beneath a velvet skull-cap, and his 
beady eyes seemed to flash with malicious 
fire as he slowly surveyed husband and wife 
from beneath his bushy eyebrows. 

“ Uncle Oliver ! ” they both exclaimed with 
one voice, at the sight of this grotesque appa- 
rition. 

“ I thought you had retired, ” said Nita, un- 
easy. He might have overheard some of her 


30 


A Bargain in Sonls 

uncomplimentary remarks of a few moments 
ago. 

“Well, I did make a start,’! replied the old 
man, looking at the husband and wife again 
with that curious expression of half suspicion, 
“ but I thought I heard the sound of loud and 
angry voices down here, and, as the hour was 
late, I ventured to see what was the trouble. 
I could not help hearing some sentences of 
your conversation — accidentally, of course.” 

“Accidentally ? ” asked Nita, with doubtful 
emphasis. 

“Accidentally, I said,” Uncle Oliver re- 
plied, blandly. “ As your voices were some- 
what raised, I could hardly escape hearing. 
From your remarks, I gathered that you are 
weary of your several lives. You, my dear 
niece, are pining for freedom, though I assure 
you that you enjoy a great deal more than 
wives did in my day. So you think you could 
be thoroughly happy if you were in Arthur’s 
place ; you would gladly take up his cares and 
troubles, and think you had made the best 
of the bargain ? ” 


A Divided House 


81 


“ I would change places with him in a mo- 
ment, if such a thing were possible,’’ cried 
Nita, clasping her hands enthusiastically. 
“But why discuss such an impossibility, a 
dream that can never be realized ?” the old 
frown returning to her face as she grew sadly 
thoughtful again. 

Uncle Oliver looked at the bowed head and 
graceful figure on the sofa, and glided nearer 
to her, still with that benignant smile on his 
face that frightened Nita more than his 
frown. 

“And if I were to tell you, ” he said, in a 
soft voice, scarcely louder than a whisper, 
“ that such a metamorphosis as you so ar- 
dently desire is possible ? If I were to tell 
you that you might change places with your 
husband here for a month, a week, a year?” 

“ I should say that you had been taking 
some of your own elixir, and that it had un- 
settled your reason,” said Nita, bluntly. 

“ I expected that answer,” said Uncle Oliver, 
not at all disconcerted. “ Nevertheless, I am 
willing to prove all I say, if you are willing to 


32 A Bargain in Souls 

make the bargain and exchange your soul for 
his.” 

Nita sat up now, and was staring at 
him with her great blue eyes. But the old 
man’s face was serious ; not the symptom of 
a smile disturbed his withered features. 

‘‘ If you could perform such a miracle, I 
would kneel at your feet and bless you,” she 
cried, impetuously. 

“ But what is the use of gravely discussing 
such an impossibility. The days of enchant- 
ment are no more, alas ! ” 

“And how about you, Arthur ?” turning to his 
nephew, who was leaning on the mantle-piece. 
“Are you discontented as well with your 
present life? Would you be glad to change 
places with Nita? Take up the threads of 
her life work where she lays it down ? You 
would not regret this bargain in souls ?” 

“Well, if you want me to consider such 
an absurd possibility in a serious light,” 
said Vaness, “I am inclined to believe I 
should profit by the change. A vacation 
from the newspaper, with nothing to think 


A Divided House 


33 


about except how I can best amuse myself, 
is a delightful prospect. I am heartily tired 
of my work — of smelling printers’ ink all 
day long, and poring over dirty proofs. To 
idle on a sofa all day, and embroider im- 
possible flowers, would be a great relief.” 

“ Oh, you don’t know how hard a woman’s 
life is,” put in Nita. If you imagine it is 
a perpetual holiday, you are greatly mis- 
taken. A few months would satisfy you 
that those who are compelled to wear skirts 
have no sinecure.” 

“I should be very willing to run the risk,” 
said Arthur, with a smile. “But really, 
uncle, it seems to me we are a set of fools to 
stand here gravely discussing an absurd 
impossibility, when we ought to be in our 
several beds and sound asleep.” 

“But it is not impossible at all,” said 
Uncle Oliver, with his peculiar chuckle. 
“ Had you studied occultism as diligently as 
I have in the cave-temples of the East and 
with the fakirs of Lower Egypt, you would 
understand that more wonderful things than 


34 


A Bar gam in Souls 

an exchange of souls was possible to the 
adepts. It is only necessary that you shall 
agree to the bargain among yourselves, and 
your deliverance from your present earthly 
form is at hand. You shall change places. 
The soul of one shall possess the body of the 
other. Are you agreed, Arthur, that this 
metamorphosis shall take place?” turning 
to his nephew. 

“ If it pleases Nita. But really — ” 

“ And you, my dear niece,” interrupting 
him— “ are you satisfied to forsake your pet- 
ticoats and crewel-work without a sigh? ” 

“ Without a sigh,” echoed Nita, in an 
impressive voice. 


The angular figure of the old man seemed 
to lengthen until it towered almost to the 
ceiling. The light filtering through the lus- 
tres on the chandeliers suffused his features 
with a weird and ghostly pallor. The shin- 
ing arabesques on his crimson dressing- 
gown seemed to be written in fire as he 


A Divided House 


85 


raised one of his flowing sleeves, and took 
from it a box of polished brass. 

“ Behold,*’ he cried, raising it aloft, “ the 
mummy’s secret.” 


TBE mummy’s SECKET 

Vaness looked gravely at the old man’s 
picturesque figure, and then laughed. 

“My dear uncle, you look like a necro- 
mancer from the Arabian Nights. You will 
frighten Nita into dreaming of hobgoblins 
until morning.” 

I am not such a child,” said that young 
lady, darting an angry glance at her hus- 
band. “Go on. Uncle Oliver, I am very 
much interested in what you were saying. 
Is it true, is it really true that souls can 
be translated — that the spirits of two people 
can change places ? ” 

“It is true,” said the sage, bowing his head. 


The Mzmimys Secret 


37 


‘‘More wonderful things than that have 
been accomplished by the fakirs of the East, 
with whom I studied many years. Since 
you are both dissatisfied with your several 
existences, you can change places if you 
have the courage to follow my directions.’^ 

“ I am sure I should be willing to make any 
sacrifice to accomplish such a blessed 
result,” she replied. “ It would be a glori- 
ous release.” 

“ A dream of idle ease for me,” said 
Arthur. “ A long rest that I so much need. 
Is it a bargain, Nita— your soul for mine?” 

“It is a bargain,” clasping his hand in 
hers in token of the agreement. 

“ And may you never regret the com- 
pact ! ” echoed Uncle Oliver, looking at his 
niece with a malicious smile on his withered 
face. 

“ Kegret it? Never ! ” she said, decidedly. 

He shrugged his shoulders and laughed 
harshly. 

“ At least, you will not blame me then, 
when it is too late to change your mind.” 


38 


A Ba7'gam in Souls 


Then turning to Arthur, who was in doubt 
whether to view the subject seriously or not, 
he said : 

‘‘You know I dabbled a good deal in 
mystic lore and occultism while I lived 
in' the East. A month ago, on my birthday, 
I received a present from my old master. 
Earn Lai, with whom I studied in the cave- 
temples of Krishna. This present was a 
mummy, which he discovered at the foot of 
a colossal statue of Buddha. From the 
inscription on the case I learned that the 
mummy was that of an astrologer and 
savant who had held a high place in the 
court of Eameses II. The outer shell, of 
camphor-wood, richly gilded, was adorned 
with hieroglyphics and cabalistic signs, and 
along the edges, like a frieze, various scenes 
from the astrologer’s life were depicted in 
crude colors, but still fresh and easily 
decipherable. The temptation to open the 
case and examine this visitor from the past 
finally became too great to be resisted. I 
carefully removed the mummy from the 


The Mu}7tmy''s Secret 


39 


covering, and slowly began to unroll the 
long linen cloths with which the body was 
swathed, until the shrunken, mahogany-col- 
ored form of the savant lay before me.” 

Uncle Oliver paused to see if his audience 
was interested, then with a satisfactory sniff 
he continued: “I will not delay my story 
by describing the various emotions that 
filled me as I stood face to face with this 
celebrity who had thrived when history was 
young. He was not a picturesque object, 
save to a student in history, or an archaeolo- 
gist; but if I had been standing before a 
modern Helen I could not have been more 
charmed, or in a more melting mood. 

“ Long, white hair framed in the brown 
face with its gleaming teeth, and agate 
stones set in the empty eye-sockets gave him 
a life-like and terrifying appearance. It 
seemed to me that he was regarding me with 
a look of mingled malice and contempt. 

“ His withered hands were crossed upon 
his breast. On the right, glittered a signet- 
ring of chrysoprase, engraved with a sala- 


40 A Bargain in Souls 

mander ; in the left, he held a papyrus scroll 
covered with minute hieroglyphics. You 
may imagine my profound joy at this dis- 
covery. What secrets might that scroll not 
contain ! It might be the key to some mys- 
tery of the ages—the secrets of the Pyra- 
mids, a clue to the hidden treasures of 
Solomon. 

“I saw myself decorated with a gold 
medal by the Society for the Promotion of 
Historical Research, and placed among the 
great discoverers of the age. 

“For days I studied the signs on the 
scroll ; but, versed as I was in Syrian, in 
Coptic and Eastern dialects, I could make 
nothing of this strange message that had 
come down to me through the centuries. 
The faded characters baffled all my study. 
But one day everything was made clear. 
The mummy’s secret was mine. The 
inscriptions on the case, which I had re- 
garded with only languid interest, repre- 
sented the key to the scroll. He who lay 
before me, by a long life of abstinence and 


Tha Mummy's Secret 


41 


religious devotion, had attained the highest 
degree of spiritual perfection. This enabled 
him to perform things that would be consid- 
ered nothing less than miracles in our own 
day. He was able to transfer the soul of the 
dying into the earthly form of one who was 
dead ; and he recounted how he had pro- 
longed the life of his royal master by trans- 
ferring his soul at the last hour into the 
body of a slave. He was also able to change 
the souls of two people who had become 
weary of their several existences and desired 
to lead new lives. 

‘‘Much was revealed in the scroll about 
the medical secrets of the time; but that 
will not interest you now. I confess I was 
somewhat disappointed in my discovery, 
for, apart from its scientific value, the secret 
of the transfer of souls was of little use. 

“But lately it has dawned upon me that 
this house was no longer a love-bird^s nest, 
such as poets delight to sing about, but a gilded 
cage, whose inmates were struggling to be 
free. I learned that you, my dear niece, 


42 


A Bargain in Souls 




had grown weary of wearing what you call 
the shackles of womanhood, and longed for 
freedom from conventional laws. Arthur, too, 
finds life not all his fancy painted. His 
ambition remains unsatisfied, and he longs 
for a rest from work and the cares of his 
profession. In short, wdfe and husband 
envy each other, and would gladly change 
places. Am I right ? ’’ 

“Perfectly,” said Nita. “Oh, Uncle 
Oliver, are you really not poking fun at us ? 
It all sounds so much like a dream. Can 
we really exchange souls ? ” 

“If you will. I have long wanted to try 
the experiment. You have only to agree to 
the bargain, and that which you so ardently 
wish for shall become a reality.” 

“I am ready,” said Nita, eagerly. 

“ And you, Arthur ? ” 

“ Oh, I am quite content. I have never 
denied Nita any pleasure yet that was 
proper, and since this will make her 
happier — ” 

“ Oh, it will, it will ! ” enthusiastically. 


The Afummys Secret 


43 


“ Go on, Uncle Oliver ; I am all impatience.” 

“ And you are quite sure you will never 
repent, and wish yourself a woman again ?” 
with a sly twinkle in his eyes. 

“ Quite sure.” 

‘Very well,” said the sage. “I have 
warned you of the worst. If the future 
brings a tardy repentance, you have only 
yourselves to blame.” 

He approached Nita and took her hand in 
his. It was cold as ice, and she was trem- 
bling with suppressed emotion. He led her 
slowly across the room to where Arthur was 
standing regarding them with a smile, in 
which doubt and wonder were mingled. 
Uncle Oliver took his hand, and placed it in 
that of his wife. 

“ It is not too late to withdraw from your 
bargain,” addressing them. 

‘‘ Go on,” said Vaness. 

‘‘ I am ready,” echoed Nita, feeling a 
strange fluttering sensation in the regions of 
the heart. 

The old man took a brass bowl from the 


44 A Bargain in Souls 

mantel-piece and placed it on the floor 
between husband and wife. Then from his 
flowing sleeve he drew the curious box that 
glittered with a phosphorescent fire beneath 
the chandelier. He opened it, and took out 
a tiny scroll discolored with age. A tremor 
of fear or anxiety passed over the young 
man and woman. 

“ Shall I go on ? 

“ Go on,” whispered Nita, faintly. 

Uncle Oliver drew some powders from the 
box and threw them in the bowl, muttering 
the while some unintelligible words as he 
read the scroll. 

At once a blue smoke, dense and acrid, 
rose like a cloud from the brazier, almost 
hiding the three forms from each other’s 
view. Again he sprinkled some powders 
in the vessel, and the three seemed to 
be floating in an opaque mist, through 
which the outlines of the figures were clearly 
discerned. 

The gaunt old man seemed to assume 
giant proportions as he stood muttering 


The Afummys Secret 45 

incantations; the sparkling arabesques on 
his gown seemed animated with life, and 
burned like fiery embers. His long hair 
twisted and uncoiled like silver serpents, 
and his eyes gleamed with an unnatural 
light that was not of earth. 

A strange feeling of lightness and buoy- 
ancy came over Nita, as the cloud of incense 
rose about her like the waters of a smooth, 
gray sea. She closed her eyes, overcome 
with a sudden faintness as she seemed to be 
lifted up on these waves of perfume and 
borne away into oblivion. 

The smoke grew denser. The silent fig- 
ures became mere shadows in the mist. 
Through the veil the old man*s voice sounded 
like a far-off murmur. Only his eyes 
flashed with a strange fire through the 
clouds that shrouded the group in its soft 
gray folds. 

The two who stood with clasped hands had 
relapsed into a trance ; they stood motion- 
less, as if bound by a spell. 

Slowly the incense lifted, and above the 


46 A Bargain in Souh 

silent figures hovered two pale Hue flames, 
filmy and transparent. The lights wavered, 
then, as if blown by some invisible breath, 
were wafted towards each other, passed, and 
quivered above the heads of the man and 
woman. Then suddenly they grew dim and 
faded into thin air. The smoke of incense 
disappeared, and the silent figures became 
strangely distinct and clear. Slowly Nita 
opened her eyes and looked around, with a 
dazed expression of wonder in her dreamy 
eyes. 

‘‘ That dream,” she murmured, passing a 
trembling hand across her heavy eyelids. 
“I seemed to be drifting away on a sea of 
smoke, and Uncle Oliver — ” But the old 
man had disappeared. 

How strange her voice sounded ! It was 
like some one else speaking ; and yet each 
tone had a familiar ring that she had heard 
somewhere before. 

‘‘You have not been dreaming at all,’’ 
said a gentle voice at her side; “ it is a sol- 
emn reality. Look there.” 


The Mummy's Secret 


47 


She turned where a jewelled hand pointed 
towards the broad pier-glass on the wall, then 
started back with a cry of alarm and 
surprise. 

No, it was assuredly no dream. She saw 
the reflection of a stalwart young man of 
about thirty -two, who confronted her in an 
awkward attitude, and whose blue eyes peered 
at her just now with timid wonderment. 
Then as his long fingers wandered towards 
his face and came in contact with a brown 
mustache, they recoiled as if stung by the 
points. 

A soft laugh at her side reminded her that 
she was not alone. 

“Where is your courage?^’ asked the 
voice she had heard before. “Behold the 
result of our bargain in souls ! ’’ 

She turned, and confronted her former 
self face to face. The same soft, brown hair 
that had been her pride in former days. 
The dainty mouth that had so often smiled 
back at her from her boudoir mirror, now 
wreathed with a malicious grin. Two 


48 A Bargain in Souls 

laughing eyes that were regarding her just 
now with an air of ill- disguised amusement. 
Two white hands, covered with shining rings, 
that were awkwardly twisting the- fringe on 
the soft silk dress. 

“What! don’t you recognize your old 
self ? ” laughed the well-dressed apparition. 
“Or are you falling in love with the mani- 
fold charms that were once your individual 
property ? I suppose you are better able to 
appreciate them now that you can get a 
bird’s-eye view. To tell the truth, now that 
I regard you critically, I confess that I never 
had any idea that I was such a good-looking 
fellow ; though I am equally certain that I 
did not hold myself in that ungraceful and 
disjointed way, like a badly-articulated pup- 
"pet, nor wave my hands about in that 
idiotic fashion.” 

“ You need not flatter yourself that you are 
such a picturesque figure, for all your physi- 
cal advantages,” cried Nita, indignantly, as 
she wiped one end of that terrible mustache 
into her eye, which brought forth an invol- 


The A/ummys Secret 


49 


untary tear. “ You will have that dress in 
shreds if you persist in trying to find a 
pocket where there is none, A nice repre- 
sentative of the softer sex you will make 
with those awkward hands that are never 
still. You had better tie them together, 
since you find them so unmanageable,” with 
a sneer. 

“ I shall have pockets made in every fold 
of this precious garment to-morrow,” said 
Arthur, angrily. “ There isnT a place even 
to carry a cigar,” 

‘‘Ladies do not carry cigars — that is, the 
ones I am acquainted with, though I dare say 
in your set — ” 

“ That’s so ; I forgot. It takes some time 
to get accustomed to being a woman, you 
know.” 

“ I don’t believe years would ever produce 
any change in you. Don’t stand there with 
your feet wide apart ; it is hardly elegant. 
Eeally, Arthur, I had no idea you were such 
an ungraceful object.” 

“Perhaps you think you are a poem of 
1 


50 


A Bargain in Souls 

beauty/’ giving the skirt an angry kick. 
“ There, now, don’t try to swallow the end of 
my mustache, I beg of you; it took me 
many years of care and study to give it that 
romantic droop.” 

am not going to swallow the nasty 
thing,” said Nita, in a choking voice, ‘‘ and 
to-morrow it shall disappear entirely, the 
first thing when I get up.” 

‘‘Nita,” solemnly, “ I forbid you to lay an 
impious finger on that mustache. It took 
me a long while to get it into that state of 
poetic perfection. You once said it was 
charming.” 

“ To look at from a distance, perhaps ; but 
it doesn’t seem to fit my face, so it shall be 
sacrificed as soon as possible.” 

“ I forbid you to trifle with my features, to 
rob my face of its principal charm. It is 
a breach of contract. You accepted the fix- 
tures and the good-will to carry on my bus» 
iness. No alterations are permitted. If you 
persist in your intention, I shall have this 
curly mop shaved ofi, and wear a red wig.” 


The Mummy's Secret 51 

“You would destroy my lovely hair,” with 
a sob. 

“ Certainly.” 

“ Heartless creature ! have you no thought 
of the past, when it was your delight to stroke 
those curls you would now sacrifice?” 

“ Yes, I shall cut them off and sell them 
and pocket the money, unless you promise 
that my mustache will be respected.” 

“But I am master now,” said Nita, stamp- 
ing her foot. “Do not anger me, or I shall 
be tempted to prove my authority. It was 
your turn an hour ago ; it is my turn now. 
Do this at your peril, and I shall have you 
placed in a private asylum, where they will 
spare you the trouble of shaving your head, 
and where a strait- jacket will dispose of your 
awkward hands.” 

Arthur saw by her determined voice that 
it W'as best to effect a compromise. It sud- 
denly dawned over him that he was in the 
minority; that his power had passed from 
him. 

“ Very well, my dear,” in a soft voice. “ I 


52 


A Bargain in Souls 

will keep your curls on condition that you 
treat my mustache with proper respect. But 
do not be harsh ; it has been the pride of my 
life; and, as I hoped, the joy of my declining 
years. Each hair is hallowed by a kiss ; you 
know that only too well. It has been deli- 
cately reared ; do not forget the brilliantine, 
which you will find on my dressing-case.” 

Fortunately for my curls,” said Nita, 
unmoved by his eloquence, ‘‘ you will have a 
maid.” Then, suddenly, she looked at him 
fixedly and repeated, ‘‘A maid.” 

“ Well ? ” he asked ‘‘that is rather a conven- 
ience, I should say, and particularly as Eosa- 
lie happens to be good-looking, ” with a smile. 

“A great attraction to you, I dare say,” 
with scornful emphasis. “But as I am the 
head of the house now, I shall discharge this 
young person to-morrow— do you under- 
stand ? — and get a darkey in her place.” 

“ Oh, that is a matter of entire indifference 
to me,” with a careless laugh. 

“ So I suppossed.” 

“At least,” he continued, “I shall have a 


The Mum7ny‘s Secret 


53 


servant to wait on me— a luxury I have never 
been able to afford when I was only an ordi- 
nary man. Now, my dear, I think you had 
better retire, for you will have a busy day to- 
morrow, and you ought to allow a few hours 
in the morning to dress. I am usually called 
at eight, but you had better make it six, in 
order to be sure ; and no breakfast to be sent 
up to your room in the morning, remember, 
or reading novels in bed until ten o’clock ; 
those little luxuries are the perquisites of my 
position.” 

Nita could not suppress a groan. 

“ I am quite satisfied. We shall see, when 
the day is finished, who has been the gainer 
by the exchange. You will not find your 
path so rose- strewn as you think; and as for 
the meals, I tremble at the thought of your 
superintending them. The cook, you know, 
has to be told everything.” 

“ Don’t be a bit alarmed, my dear, regard- 
ing the cuisine. I shall establish it on a 
scientific basis. No more shall we be con- 
fronted with cold fried chops and terra-cotta 


54 


A Bargain in Souls 

pies. My favorite books in the library are 
Brillat-Savarin and Francatelli; and since 
I shall have so much time on my hands, I can 
experiment in all their mysteries. You will 
need to invest in a larger suit of clothes be- 
fore the month is out, when I take charge of 
the cuisine, ” 

‘‘ More likely it will be a shroud that I shall 
need,” said Nita. Don’t expect to experi- 
ment on me as Uncle Oliver does with his 
servant. Of course I shall take most of my 
meals at the club, while you are poisoning 
yourself at home. You might invest in a 
mild-tempered ostrich, if you want to experi- 
ment in cooking ; it would be lefes dangerous 
to your own health, I am certain. ” 

“ Ah, ” said Vaness, thoughtfully “ what de- 
lightful little luncheons I shall give ! and 
Japanese teas, and Indian tiffins ! ” 

‘‘ Yes, that will be delightful, ” cried Nita, 
clapping her hands. 

‘‘ Oh, but you wont be there. Men will be 
strictly excluded, you know. About that time 
you will be reading proofs, and wielding the 


55 


The Mummy'* s Secf-et 

blue pencil, and getting yourself smeared 
with ink, and swearing at stupid compositors.” 

I shall not swear, ” said Nita, very decid- 
edly. 

“Oh, but you must; you can’t get along 
without it very well. It rather stimulates 
them in their work. Suppose I copy out a 
few mild oaths for you to use ; you can re- 
hearse them before a mirror in the morning, 
or on your way to the office. A little gentle 
profanity often goes a good way in some 
cases. ” 

“ Well, if they are very mild — very little 
tiny swear-words, ” said Nita, reluctantly. 

“ Oh, you don’t want them too mild, or 
they will have no effect. You’ll soon get 
used to it, and find a little profanity greatly 
strengthens your conversation. Gives it a 
sort of piquant relish, don’t you know. ” 

“ What horrid creatures men are ! ” 
sighed Nita. “ It will take me a long time 
to retrieve your lost reputation. I shall be 
handicapped from the start, while you begin 
your new life with a clean page.” 


56 


A Bargain hi Souls 


“ I think,” said Arthur, meditatively, 
“ that I shall celebrate my dehut in society 
by giving a pink tea to-morrow afternoon. 
It will give me an opportunity to get 
acquainted with some of the young ladies 
you so often entertained while I was toiling 
down town. There’s Miss Olcott, on the 
next block, and Dorothy Goldthwaite, who 
will make a charming vis-a-vis, and — ” 

“ I won’t have you entertaining those art- 
ful coquettes while I am absent,” said Nita. 
‘Tt — it’s not proper.” 

Vaness laughed. 

‘‘ Have you begun to regret your bargain 
already? Eemember, when we made this 
bargain to change souls, you were to take up 
my life exactly where I left it, and I, in 
turn, was to inherit your troubles and pleas- 
ures. Your friends have become my friends ; 
and very delightful ones, I have no doubt, I 
shall find them. I must give a little party, 
in order to get more intimately acquainted 
with them.” 

“ Very well,” said Nita; “then I shall fre- 


Thd Mtwimy's Secret 


57 


quent the club and the cafes, and find out 
what sort of a life you have led in the past, 
and what sort of a set you move in — you and 
your precious friend. Jack Follansby.” 

“ Phew ! whistled the husband, a little 
startled ; “ he will lead you a pretty dance 
if you follow his directions, ^^ow, really, 
Nita, I don’t think the Pounders’ Club is 
exactly the place for you. You may hear 
yourself — that is, me— talked about. Of 
course, wdth such a large membership, a 
number of cads belong to it whom I never 
speak to.” 

“Oh, pray don’t alarm yourself on my 
account,” said Nita. “ I expect to be shocked 
there, as well as at some of your other favorite 
resorts. I am anxious to know what the at- 
tractions are that have kept you out so often 
until early morning. You never would tell 
me yourself, but now I shall be able to in- 
vestigate on my own account. What a delight- 
ful prospect ! ” clapping her hands together 
delightedly. “ It will be as good as a play. 
I shall not sleep for thinking about it.” 


58 A Bargain in Souls 

“Then you had better retire now,” said 
Vaness, grumpily ; “ it will bring the day of 
liberty all the nearer. I am going, anyway,” 
turning towards the door. “Now don’t 
make a racket with your boots in the morn- 
ing, as I want to finish a novel before break- 
fast. Good-night.” 

Nita stepped forward and then hesitated, 
as he moved towards the door. 

“Are — are you not going to kiss me good- 
night, as — as you generally do ? ” she stam- 
mered, with an anxious tremor in her voice 
that gave Vaness a feeling of malicious joy. 

He looked at the blushing face of the stal- 
wart young man before him a little 
doubtfully. 

“ Well, ye , I suppose so, since it is cus- 
tomary.” 

“ Oh, Arthur ! ” she murmured, plaintively, 
“ one would think that you found it a disa- 
greeable task.” 

“ Well, I never carried my egotism so far 
as to feel like kissing myself, ” with a smile ; 
“but here goes. ” 


The Mummy's Secret 


59 


He touched the flushed cheek with his lips 
and passed on. 

‘‘Good-night, ” he said. 

“Good-night,” sighed Nita, preparing to 
follow the lady in gray. 


Ill 

BY MORNING LIGHT 

“Nine o’clock/’ mumbled Vaness, drows- 
ily, as a shaft of sunlight fell across his eyes. 

“ I suppose it’s time for me to begin the 
daily grind again, ” with a yawn. “ I wish 
that dream had continued for half an hour 
longer. The oddest thing ! Nita and I had 
made a bargain to exchange souls, and — ” 

He half rose in the bed, and stared around 
the room, all blue and gold like the heart of 
a violet. 

“By Jove ! was it a dream ? ” he asked him- 
self, with a vague air of doubt. “ This is 
Nita’s boudoir, sure enough. Could she — ? 

Well, I must settle this question right away.” 

60 


61 


By Moi'tiing Light 

Slipping out of the sheets, he walked over 
to the mirror on the toilet-table, and stood 
for a moment in silent contemplation of the 
slender figure reflected in its depths. He 
saw a graceful form draped in snowy cam- 
bric and foamy lace, a piquant face lit by two 
soft blue eyes that now regarded him with 
a serious expression in their calm depths, and 
a coronal of gold-brown hair. 

“ It wasn’t a dream at all, ” said Vaness, 
running his white fingers dreamily through 
the glistening curls. “ It is a beautiful real- 
ity ! What a blessed thought, that I can now 
sleep as late as I please, and not be compelled 
to imprison myself in a dingy office the best 
part of the day ! It is almost too good to be 
true. I am almost afraid to study the mir- 
ror again, lest I should come face to face 
with my old self. Well, I won’t try to sleep 
any more this morning. This revelation has 
banished all my drowsiness. I must get ac- 
customed to my sudden change of fortune ” — 
walking up and down the room, with a glance 
now and then at the small bare feet, that 


62 A Bargain in Souls 

seemed to be playing hide and seek under 
the lace edges of the robe de nuit. 

Suddenly he paused with a start before a 
chair at the foot of the bed. It was piled 
high with snowy muslins, from which peeped 
the toes of some black silk stockings and a 
coquettish looking pair of corsets of pale-blue 
satin. He stared at this pyramid dubiously 
for a moment, and then laughed uproariously. 

‘‘ How in thunder shall I know how to put 
these contrivances on?” ruefully. “For a 
married man I am singularly ignorant about 
such mysteries.” 

Just then a knock, timid and discreet, 
sounded at the door. 

“ Good heavens, a woman ! ” cried Vaness, 
as he caught sight af a jaunty French cap, 
and he made a leap for the bed and drew the 
coverlet up close to his throat, eyeing the 
visitor with wide-staring eyes. “ I forgot all 
about Eosalie, ” he muttered, as the appar- 
ition came in view. “A fellow can’t get used 
to having a maid around right away ” — and 
he chuckled at the humor of the situation. 


By Morning Light 63 

“ Is madame ready to get up ? ’’ asked Eo- 
salie, gently. 

She was a slender little woman with a de- 
mure face, framed by a lace cap of many 
bows, and her apron displayed two pockets 
that were positively bewitching. Under the 
skirt of dull blue cloth peeped two coquet- 
tish little shoes that might have inspired a 
rondeau in a romantic poet. Van ess thought 
it would not take him very long to get accus- 
tomed to her presence. 

“ Well, this situation is getting decidedly 
interesting,’’ he murmured to himself. 

'‘Well, Eosalie, what do you want?” 

« Why, I come to help madame to dress,” in 
astonished tones. 

“ Come to— help —me — to — dress,” explod- 
ing with laughter. “ Oh, this is too much ! ” 
Then, seeing that Eosalie was regarding him 
curiously, he controlled his mirth. “ Pshaw ! 
I keep forgetting who I am,” in an undertone. 

“ This won’t do at all. I must remember my 
position.” 

“ Ah, ” said the maid, “ madame moost 


64 


A Bargain in Souls 


have had zee pleasant dreams last night zat 
she laugh, eh, so modi ! ” bustling about the 
room on various incomprehensible errands. 

“Yes, very funny,” said Vaness, following 
her curiously with his eyes. 

“ With monsieur it was le contraire,^^ she 
returned. “Itink he moost have dreamed 
of ten souzand devils las’ night, or been out 
wiz — wiz ze boys, vat you call it ? ’’—taking 
some garments out of the wardrobe and 
smoothing them out on a chair. 

“ What put such an absurd notion in your 
head ?” asked Vaness, wdio felt the remark to 
be a personal one. 

Because when I pass his door zis morn- 
ing,” shaking out a skirt, ‘‘ he bang on zee 
door and howl for me to come in. He was so 
mad he foam. He tremble so wiz rage he no 
could dress himself, and he try to put on his 
trousairs over his head. Oh, hevairbad!” 
shaking her head sadly. 

‘‘ I should think so, ” said Vaness, doubling 
up with mirth as the picture framed itself in 
his imagination. 


By Morning Light 65 

“ I haf nevair seen monsieur in sooch a tern- 
pair,” said Kosalie, fussing over the strange 
garments on the chair. “You should find 
out what it is zat trouble him.” 

“ Yes, he is greatly changed,” said Vaness, 
with a sigh. “All his amiable temperament 
has disappeared.” 

“ And he was so sweet before, ” cried Eosa- 
lie, clasping her hands and rolling her eyes 
towards the ceiling. 

‘‘Eh?” 

“ A man to love, to adore.” 

“Yes— Yes, he was all that,” nodding his 
head with an air of conviction. “I quite 
agree with you ; but I am afraid^ he has 
changed. He will never be such a model 
husband again. His virtues were too many 
to stand the trying test of time.” 

“Ah, zeeze men, zeeze men ! ” sighed Eo- 
salie. “ Zay laugh to-day, to-morrow zay 
sink of suicide. He stay avay. It may be 
zat zere is anozzair vooman in zee case.” 

“ Eosalie, I forbid you to speak so of Mr. 
Vaness. He is a man of honor. He would 


5 


66 


A Bargam in Souls 


never carry on a vulgar intrigue in secret.” 

Eosalie shrugged her shoulders and was si- 
lent. 

“ Toute la maison est devenue folle*^ she 
said as she went out, shaking her head with an 
air of conviction that Mrs. Vaness was as 
crazy as her husband. 

She soon returned to her mysterious labors 
at the dressing-table. 

“Now, Rosalie,” said Vaness, as he re- 
entered the room a few moments later, and 
paused by the chair where the strange white 
garments were piled, “ help me to climb into 
these— these what-do-you-call-’ems,” taking 
up a snowy trifle of linen and lace gingerly 
and eyeing it at arm’s length with some tre- 
pidation. “ This damned garment must be 
a dress-reform bustle or a sanitary cutaway, 
considerably cut away.” 

“ Oh,madame ! ” shivered Rosalie, covering 
her ears. 

“ Well, what’s the matter now? ” 

“Nozzing — nozzing; it is possible zat I 
misunderstood. Pardon ! pardon ! ” and the 


By Mo^nhig Light 67 

momentous operation of dressing the slender 
figure before her was begun. 

“Ouch ! ’’ cried Vaness, “ there goes a pin 
into me. Can’t you hook up this — this ar- 
rangement, or tie it on with strings, or buckle 
it, or — hang it ! why not get along without 
it ? I should think the rest of the pile would 
be enough of a load to carry.” 

“ Mais non, c'est impossible” gurgled the 
maid, with her mouth full of pins. 

“Well, hurry up, anyway,” said Vaness 
’impatiently, “ for I am just dying to have a 
smoke.” 

“A smoke!” echoed Eosalie, pausing in 
the midst of her work with a shiver of dismay. 

“ Yes, a smoke ; ” then suddenly recollect- 
ing, “ No I meant a drink.” 

“Madame drink an’ smoke ? Quel malheur! 
Is it zat she has acquired zee habit lately ? ” 

“No, no; you slightly misunderstood me. 
I feel a little mixed this morning ; that pecu- 
liar dream is still running in my head. What 
I meant was a smoking drink, don’t you see ? 
— a smoking drink — my morning coffee.” 


68 


A Bargain in Souls 

** Oh, zis Anglais is sooch a peculiar lan- 
guage, I am sure I shall never learn it. Ven 
I hear madame speak of zee drink an* zee 
smoke I tink she has found a— a — 

‘‘ Well, found what ? Don’t stand there gib- 
bering in that absurd way.** 

A lovair.’* 

“Eh?** 

“ A lovair.** 

“ Oh, a ‘ lovair * and smoke and drink go 
to-gether, eh? ** smiled Vaness. 

“ Mais oui certainementf generally — zat is, 
in Paris. I have not zee knowledge how it is 
in V AmeriqueJ* 

“ Oh, the ‘ lovair * is unknown in New York,* 
he said, very gravely. 

*^ C^est 'possible'} *’ very much astonished. 

“ To tell the truth, Eosalie,*’ in a stage- 
whisper, “there is one man whom I am very 
much in love with.’* 

“Ah !** pricking up her ears, “ I knew it was 
impossible for one of madame’s figure to 
remain long wizout one — and he is gentiU 
il est beau} ” 


69 


By Morninsr Light 

“ Oh, he’s a lovely creature, I assure j ou. 
Curly brown hair, a cavalry mustache, and 
melting brown eyes.” 

“ Just like monsieur ? ” 

“ Oh, you could hardly tell them apart.” 

Eosalie looked around the room stealthily, 
and then whispered mysteriously : 

“ It is good zat madame has made ozzair 
arrangements.” 

« Why, what do you mean ? ” 

“Because ven I brush zee coats of Mr. 
Vaness I often come upon notes in a lady’s 
handwriting.” 

‘‘ Oh, you little devil ! ” exclaimed the lis- 
tener to himself; ‘‘ I guess it is about time 
for you to go.” Then to Eosalie, “ Oh, those 
are only business letters. An editor receives 
correspondence from all sorts of people. 
Hurry up with this dressing. Haven’t you 
hooked me together enough for one day? I 
don’t see any sense, anyway, in all these 
straps and hooks and buttons.” 

“ Now I must fix madame’shair.” 

** Oh, it will do as it is.” 


70 


A Bargain in Souls 


‘‘ Impossible/’ 

“Are, you going to stick all those hairpins 
in my head ? ” 

“ Mais ouiB 

“Oh, roll it up in a knot; I feel like a 
pin-cushion already.” 

“ But madame may have visitors ; she must 
be ready to receive at all hours.” 

“What a nuisance ! W’ell, get through as 
quick as you can. If I have to go through 
this performance every morning, I shall go 
mad.” At last, after much growling and 
impatience on the part of Vaness, Kosalie 
completed her task. He paused for a mo- 
ment to survey the charming figure presented 
in the glass. The flowing folds of pale blue 
crepe de Chine half hid and half revealed the 
supple form beneath. The snowy cascade of 
lace fell from throat to hem, not whiter than 
the jewelled hands, and glimpses of a bosom 
that shone in the sunlight like mother-of- 
pearl. And crowning all, the oval face was 
flushed just now with a delicate rose that 
might have inspired Watteau. 


71 


By Morning Light 

‘‘ I never thought my wife was so charm- 
ing,” said Vaness to himself. “ It must be 
that the soul has imparted to the eyes a new 
beauty that was lacking before.” 

Suddenly he caught a glimpse of another 
face, Kosalie’s, peering over liis shoulder. 
She was admiring her work, and it suddenly 
struck him that she was a very picturesque 
little person. 

“ Do you know,” turning suddenly, “ that 
you are a pretty girl, Kosalie,— a very pretty 
girl ? ” 

“ They have informed me that I am ex- 
quisite,” said Eosalie, demurely, as she ad- 
justed a silk bow on her wonderful lace cap. 

Vaness had kissed her before he knew what 
he was about. Turning he saw Nita. 

‘‘ My dear Nita— I mean Arthur,” he stam- 
mered. 

His wife turned to the girl. “ Kosalie.” 

Monsieur ! ” — very much in wonder what 
the trouble was all about. 

“ You leave to-day.” 

‘‘ But, monsieur — ” 


72 


A Bargain in Souls 

‘‘ Not another word, shameless girl. This 
is a return for all my kindness to you. I dare 
say, however, that madame will be pleased 
to send you cards for her receptions” — and 
with this parting shaft Nita turned abruptly 
and went clumping noisily down the stairs. 

“ Oh quel malheur! ” cried Rosalie, wring- 
ing her hands and sobbing, “what is zat I 
have done ? ” 

“Don’t raise such a row,” groaned Vaness. 
“Here— here,” rushing to the bureau and 
taking out some money, which he thrust into 
her trembling hands. “ Take this and stop 
crying ! ” and before she could reply, he was 
bounding down the stairs as rapidly as the 
long trailing skirts would permit. 

He found Nita seated at the head of the ta- 
ble, glowering at a platter of poached eggs. 
He took his place silently at the end of the 
board, and seemed to be very much interested 
in the morning paper, over which he peered 
at the stern features of his vis-a-vis, 

“ It is quite evident,” Nita began, crunch- 
ing savagely a piece of toast, “ that you did 


78 


By Morning Light 

not lose any time in availing yourself of the 
opportunities of your position. I really 
thought better of you,” choking down a sob. 
“If this is the beginning, what terrible re- 
velations I shall learn before many days have 
passed ! Oh, how unhappy lam!” wiping 
a dim eye with a corner of her napkin. 
“ How unhappy lam!” 

“ Now don’t be silly, my dear,” said Vaness, 
recovering his composure. “ This exchange 
of p':'sition was made entirely with your con- 
sent. You w^ere delighted with the prospect 
that I was to relieve you of your galling 
chains, in return for my liberty. Besides, 
supposing I did give the girl a fatherly kiss. 
It was a thoughtless impulse, and neither of 
us are any the worse for it that I can see. 
You are not going to repent at this early 
stage of our comedy ? ” 

“It will prove a drama — a tragic drama, I 
know,” said Nita, plaintively. “You may 
have done something horrible in the past, 
and I shall have to bear the punishment for 
it. Perhaps you were glad to escape from 


74 


A Bargain in Souls 

your evil life, and thought this exchange 
would make you free. I see it all ; it was a 
plan to get rid of me— a cruel conspiracy,” 
relapsing into tears. 

Vaness went on quietly eating, until the 
sobs grew fainter. 

“ Don’t you think you had better go and 
bathe your eyes in some cold water?” he 
said, crunching noisily a piece of toast. ‘‘ It 
is nearly time for you to appear at the office, 
and it wouldn’t look well for an editor to 
have been crying. They are not supposed 
to be supplied with tears, or any emotions 
whatever. Suppose the rival editor across 
the way were to see you snivelling ? It would 
be a huge joke, especially as I told him only 
last week that I should pull his nose in public 
if he ever abused me in print again. I leave it 
to you to carry out my promise.” 

“What, to pull his nose?” asked Nita, 
faintly. 

“Exactly.” 

“But I — I don’t want to pull anybody’s 
nose.” 


r 


By Morning Light 


75 


“Oh, but you must, if he opens fire again. 
The honor of the paper is at stake. Of course 
he may try to cane you, or punch your head ; 
but you mustn’t mind a little thing like that. 
Anyway, he is a rank coward, so there is 
small chance of retaliation. But don’t let 
him strike you in the face. I beg of you to 
guard those sacred features which I have 
trusted you with as you would your life. I 
could never contemplate them again with joy 
if one of the eyes were missing, or a well- 
directed blow had knocked my classic nose 
out of perspective.” 

“Oh ! ” moaned Nita, passing a trembling 
hand over her features, to see if they were 
still intact — “oh ! ” 

“ You’ll get used to being horsewhipped, in 
time,” pursued the tormenter, “and find it 
increases your circulation as well as that of 
the paper. And now, while I don’t want to 
hurry you,” looking at the clock, “ I think 
you ought to be on your way down-town. 
You know how eager you were last night to 
begin your glorious career; this morning 


76 


A Bargain in Souls 

your impatience seems to have entirely dis- 
appeared. Now, when you get to the office, 
what do you propose to do ? How will you 
begin your work of reconstruction ? ” 

“ You would only laugh at me if I were to 
tell you,” said Nita. “ I have rules for every- 
thing set down in this book,” taking out a 
note-book. “ For some months I have been 
compiling this volume, and there are ques- 
tions and answers that apply to every situa- 
tion.” 

“ What is the answer when a defeated can- 
didate or a rival editor rushes in and tries to 
shoot the cigar out of your mouth ? It would 
be useful to know.” 

“I — I haven’t got that down. It can’t be 
possible such things occur in a New York 
office. You are only trying to frighten me.” 

“Such things don’t occur, eh? Why, I dug 
a dozen bullets out of the wall only a month 
ago, and had them moulded into the hand- 
some paper-weight you will find on the desk ; 
and as for the editorial chair, why it’s as full 
of buckshot as a Christmas pudding is full of 


77 


By Morning Light 

plums. You will have more than one sur- 
prise awaiting you, my dear. I suppose you 
found a schedule of the office-work in my 
pocket?” 

“ Yes, and a great many other things be- 
sides,’’ said Nita. ‘‘You would have done 
well to have destroyed most of your papers 
before we changed places.” 

“Eh? What’s that?” 

“ Among your assets I found a letter — an 
invitation from a woman,” triumphantly. 

“ Oh yes, I remember. The annual dinner 
of the Stage Society— a very worthy charity. 
Of course I have to go to all such entertain- 
ments in order to be on good terms with the 
managers — ” 

“ And actresses too, I suppose,” said Nita, 
meekly. But Vaness did not hear. 

“You see, we get forty cents aline from 
the theatres, and a dollar a line for personal 
puffs. Now don’t be writing influential ac- 
tresses down because you don’t like the way 
they fix their hair, or because they wear 
false teeth; it would be just like a woman.” 


78 


A Bargain in Souls 

“ I shall maintain my position with dig- 
nity,” said his vis-a-vis, ‘‘ I am fully aware 
how the editor of a paper should conduct 
himself.” 

‘‘That’s very well ; but while you are main- 
taining your dignity, also look after the dol- 
lars. Our dramatic critic is a young man 
and rather thoughtless. When a new play 
is announced and he happens to have some 
friends in the company, he is very liable to 
give them a lot of free advertising, which is 
clear loss to us. The idea is not to commit 
yourself one way or the other until you see 
what the manager is going to do. There’s 
Morton, for instance, of the Fourth Avenue 
Theatre. When he brings out a new play, 
he can always be depended on for a five-hun- 
dred-dollar notice ; but don’t find fault with 
him because he wears red whiskers and 
swears like a trooper.” 

“ But supposing the play is bad ? ” 

“Well, you must discover some good 
points, whether they exist or not. If the 
New York papers only discussed good plays, 


By JMoi'nuig Light 79 

they would have trouble filling their theat- 
rical columns.” 

“A public journal,” said Nita, referring to 
the little note-book, ‘‘should be a mirror of 
truth, an enemy of fraud and humbugs, a 
champion of the right. It never should be 
swayed by mere monetary considerations.” 

“ That’s very pretty. I believe in speaking 
the truth, too ; that is, if it doesn’t interfere 
with your income.” 

“A grovelling sentiment worthy of a man,” 
with disdain. “No wonder that the press has 
become an object of contempt, a telephone 
through which the vilest can buy the right to 
speak.” 

“ Your sentiments do you a vast amount of 
credit, but it would require a great deal of 
money to carry them out. If I were to follow 
my own inclinations concerning the editor- 
ship of ‘ The Owl,’ we should not be living in 
such a comfortable home, we should not be 
so well dressed or well fed. Look around 
this room. You see that Steinw’ay piano in 
the corner ? ” 


80 


A Bargain in Souls 


Where did it come from ? ” 

“ Why, it was a present from you on my 
last birthday.” 

“Not at all; you received it through me 
from Alderman McGoozle, as a thank-offer- 
ing for services rendered while he was run- 
ning for office.” 

“Oh! ” with a long-drawn sigh. 

“ That pearl-laid secretary by the wall was 
a present from a genial murderer whose ac- 
quittal we helped to secure.” 

“Oh!” 

“ Why, you have been dressing yourself for 
the past three years out of the perquisites of 
office. Your spring bonnet represents Lop- 
eared Mick’s victory over the Lancashire 
Spider, and your Easter costume the grati- 
tude of a defaulting cashier. Your — ” 

“ You’d better not go any farther,” said 
Nita. 

“Well, I only wanted to show you that 
while we may cherish the noblest principles 
and sentiments, as editors it is well to keep 


81 


By Morning Light 

them under the control of a golden key. To 
go clothed in virtuous sentiments will not 
protect you from the inclemency of the 
weather, nor is a righteous principle in your 
mouth going to satisfy the cravings of an 
empty stomach.” 

“ You shall see,” said Nita, decidedly “ that 
it only needs a brave heart to make honesty 
pay. There may be some resistance at the 
first, but in the end right must prevail.” 

‘‘And in the meantime we stand a fair 
chance of starving,” saidVaness, rising from 
the table. 

“ Wait,” Nita replied laying down her nap- 
kin. “I shall soon have an opportunity to 
show you that I am right.” 

“Well, you donH seem to be very eager to 
-begin,” with a malicious smile. 

The sun filtering through the orange silk 
curtains filled every nook and corner of the 
cosy dining-room with a comfortable glow, 
bringing into relief its luxurious chairs that 
invited rest, the dainty paintings on the wall, 
the cheerful nook in the bow-window piled 


82 A Bar gam i/t Souls 

with embroidered cushions. The sofa looked 
so soft and inviting that Nita could not re- 
press a sigh of regret as she thought of the 
many idle hours she had dozed away in its 
velvet embrace. And there lay the novel she 
had laid down tHe night before, unfinished. 

She walked into the parlor, slowly trying 
to conceal from him the emotions that were 
struggling for the mastery. It would never 
do to let him know that she had begun to 
weaken so soon. Where were all her cour- 
age and braveness ? 

“And what are you going to do all day ?” 
she asked Vaness, with an affected careless- 
ness, adjusting a refractory necktie that had 
worked its way over her ear. 

“Oh, I haven’t thought much about it,” 
with a yawn; lie off and read, I suppose. I 
have not had time in the past three years for 
anything but newspapers and police-reports. 
When I get hungry, I shall study Franca- 
teli and experiment with some of his mys- 
teries. I have often thought that if circum- 
stances had not forced me into journalism I 


83 


By Mornlnsr Light 

should have become a professional cook. It 
must be a very enjoyable life, I imagine, and 
much more profitable. The cuisine is the 
most important educator of the century. 
What historic memories fill the mind at the 
sight of a hoeuf a la Mirahejxu! and a hun- 
dred songs rise from the smoke of a dish of 
bouillabaisse.^* 

“Fortunately, I shall not be here for your 
ghoulish repasts, “ said ■ Nita. “Now that I 
have some liberty of action, I can pick out 
my restaurants.” 

“By all means, my dear; dine out as often 
as you please. I shall not lack for society. 
You know Miss Olcott lives only a block away 
and I dare say she would be glad to dine 
here instead of at the boarding-house where 
she is condemned to live.” 

“You know how I detest that woman,” said 
Nita, frowningly. 

“Why, you always kiss her most affection- 
ately when you meet— an established custom 
which I suppose I must respect,” with a 
laugh. 


84 


A Bargain in Souls 

“It is policy for me to treat her kindly, 
because she has a very sharp tongue, and if 
we quarrelled she might talk about me.” 

“Well, I shall cultivate her for the same 
reason ; and I have no doubt we shall get 
along very well together. You see, I shall have 
so much time on my hands, you being away 
all day-” 

“I shall make it my business to be here to- 
night at five o’clock if you are going to dine 
alone.” 

“But I sha’n’t be alone. I shall have 
those four lovely girls to keep me com- 
pany.” 

“Oough !” 

“Besides, your business will detain you 
at the office until six at the earliest, for, after 
the last edition is out, you must arrange for 
the next day. Of course you will have a chance 
to get some pork and beans at the corner 
between-times.” 

“ But I don’t like pork and beans,” wailed 
Nita. 

“ Oh you must get used to them. They are 


By Morning Light 85 

considered the proper food for brain-work- 
ers.” 

“ You are only trying to frighten me into 
believing that your life in the past has been 
one of privations. I don’t believe anything 
of the kind. At least I shall be free to do as 
I please.” 

“ I don’t know about that,” shaking his 
head ; “but we shall see.” 

“ Yes, we shall see,” cried Nita, turning 
towards the door. ^ 

“ Hold on ; you are going off without your 
hat.” 

“ Oh, bother the hat ! ” coming back. 

Finally equipped, she started off again. 

“ I shall look forward to the first edition,” 
he said. 

“ You will be astonished.” 

“ I expect to be.” 

“ Horrid thing ! Now, when I come back, 
you — you, must tell me everything that has 
happened— every word that you say to those 
girls at supper.” 

“Ya— as, unless my memory fails me. 


86 


A Bargain in Souls 

And, my dear, I expect you to be equally 
confidential. We shall now have the op- 
portunity to see ourselves as others see 
us.” 

“ Oh ! ” exclaimed Nita, as a sudden thought 
flashed through her mind ; but she did not 
give it expression in words, and fled from the 
room slamming the door behind her. 

“ Funny little creature ! ” said Vaness, with 
a meditative smile. “ I really believe she 
has begun to weaken already, but is to proud 
to let me know it. I am afraid she has made 
a bad bargain. Anyway, the experience may 
cure her. It may be good for us both. I 
know I was sorely in need of a vacation. A 
whole day and nothing to do ! A pleasant 
prospect, but apt to prove monotonous.” 

He walked up and down the room, suddenly 
pausing before the side-board. 

‘‘ I am all alone,” looking around furtively. 
“ I might take a morning refresher and a 
smoke, and no one need be a whit the wdser. 
It will add so much to the satisfaction when 
I have to do it surreptitiously.” 


By Morning Light 87 

He tried the doors of the sideboard. They 
were locked. 

“Just my luck !” grumbling; “and I was 
just beginning to feel precious dry.^* 

He rang the bell, and Eosalie, with traces 
of recent tears on her face, appeared in the 
doorway. “ Eosalie, where are the keys of 
the sideboard ? 

“ MaiSf madame, they are in the care of 
monsieur.^’ 

“Oh! that’ll do.” 

Vaness sank into a chair and growled out : 

“ Well it isn’t such a sinecure to be a wo- 


man after all 1 ” 


IV 

THE editor’s busy DAY 

“The Evening Owl” belonged to that 
class of peculiar papers which have sprung 
into existence in the metropolis during the 
past decade. It had been founded originally 
by a Kussian refugee, and there were no 
less than six hundred stockholders who held 
from one to a hundred shares in the enter- 
prise. 

The founder, having started the paper on 
a few hundred dollars, had almost starved 
to death the first six months, and to dis- 
charge his obligations he gave stock instead 
of money. Thus it happened that even the 

boot-black on the corner and the beanery in 
88 


The Editor's Busy Day 89 

the basement held shares in the paper, 
which had now become a very valuable prop- 
erty, owing a great deal to the efforts of its 
humble shareholders. 

For the boot-black and the bean-baker, 
and others of their ilk, finding themselves 
in possession of so much of the journal’s 
scrip, at that time worth little more than the 
paper on which it was printed, began to dab- 
ble in journalism themselves, and banded 
together to secure news that would advance 
“The Evening OwTs” circulation. 

The boot-black, who had free range of the 
office buildings on the block, stumbled across 
many sensations in going his rounds, and re- 
ceived many confidences from inviting key- 
holes. The Pole who had acted in the capacity 
of man-servant to the late editor, and had 
been left a wad of stock instead of wages, be- 
longed to the “Gentlemen’s Gentlemen Club,” 
madeup of valets, cooks, and coachmen, and 
at the weekly dinners of the association he 
gathered from his companions the most in- 
teresting chapters from family closets. 


90 A Bargain in Souls 

No one who rode in horse-cars, or went to 
theatres, or lunched in cafes could be cer- 
tain that some emissary of the ‘‘Evening 
OwP’ was not within ear-shot. And young 
married couples at the hotels were often sur- 
prised at the assiduous attentions of the bell- 
boys, who insisted upon bringing up ice- 
water at all hours of the night and morning, 
and answered their calls with suspicious 
alacrity. 

Other journals might stagnate for want of 
news. “The Evening OwT* was ever ready 
with a sensation. Without waiting for the 
wheels of time to grind out a dramatic epi- 
sode or startling catastrophe, it applied the 
oil of ingenuity to the axles and increased 
the revolutions. The city was a checker- 
board in the opinion of the editor, and he 
moved his men here and there at will, crea- 
ting catastrophes and leading them into com- 
plications. “The Evening Owl” was never 
dull, though other journals might be as dry 
as a bundle of Congressional records. 

The editor wisely argued that the average 


The Editors Busy Day 91 

public who bought papers wanted to be 
stirred up. Having tasted blood one day, they 
were not to be put off with tea and toast the 
next. To keep up a daily supply of sensa- 
tions was therefore his life’s ambition. The 
means employed were not always the most 
honorable ; but since the readers were satis- 
fied, who should find fault? Was it any 
one’s business if the man who swore to the 
circulation had been indicted seventeen 
times for perjury, or that the ragpickers of 
the city w^ere paid a liberal price per pound for 
all the torn letters they found in ash-barrels 
during the course of their pregrinations ? 

If a man contemplated suicide, he might 
turn it to profitable account for his family by 
choosing the most sensational means, and 
writing it up previously for the paper. “ The 
Evening Owl” would publish a full account 
with many illustrations ten minutes after the 
tragedy occurred, and a handsome check 
would be forwarded to the bereaved family 
by the next mail. Indirectly in this w^ay the 
journal did a great deal of good. 


92 


A Bargain in Souls 

Suppose you wished to elope with a rich 
man’s daughter, and did not have the money 
to pay the railroad fares to the next station. 
It would be only necessary to call on the ed- 
itor of “ The Evening Owl ” to perfect ar- 
rangements. All that was required on your 
part was to conduct the elopement in a newsy 
way, after a plan suggested by the editor. Get 
married in a balloon or on the Brooklyn 
Bridge, or hear her away on a bicycle pursued 
by the irate father. You might make your 
choice how it was to be managed, and the 
paper would come down handsomely for the 
expenses. 

If your wife ran away and you were anxious 
to get her back, “The Evening Owl ” would 
provide means for pursuit, provided you w^ere 
confidential regarding the circumstances. 

So devoted were the stockholders to the in- 
terests of their paper that in times of trouble, 
or when there was a drouth of news, they did 
not hesitate to trot out some of their own 
family skeletons for the public view. Lemuel 
J. Kigwood would not now be lingering in 


93 


The Editor's Busy Day 

durance vile if he had not stopped on his 
way to Canada to pen a graphic account of 
his defalcations for the paper in which he was 
a shareholder. Nor would Barney Blaherly 
be now under sentence of death if, while 
cutting up his wi^e he had not paused to 
take her portrait with a Kodak camera for 
the last edition. 

With such a band of devoted adherents it 
was not to be wondered at that “ The Evening 
Owl ” should be such a financial success, but 
a large sum of money w^as spent yearly in 
keeping the staff out of reach of the strong 
arm of the law. 

Such was the paper and its policy up to 
the morning that Nita, still irritated in mind, 
entered the office to take editorial charge. 

Now at last she would have an opportunity 
to give vent to her pent-up ideas. Now was 
the golden chance to show that scoffer at home 
what a woman can do to create a great paper. 

But the bare room, filled with dusty files, 
and the long line of men in their shirt sleeves 
smoking and expectorating copiously, rather 


91 


A Ba7‘gain in Souls 


dampened her ardor as she made her way 
to the office in the corner, separated from the 
main room by a board partition. 

Nit> sat down at the desk and commenced 
listlessly to open the pile of letters that 
lay there. She could net banish from her 
mind the thought that Vaness was probably 
now reclining on that soft sofa in the corner 
of the parlor, reading the fascinating novel 
that she was just dying to finish. 

And then that pink supper at five, with 
eight giddy girls grouped about the board! 
She could see in fancy Miss Olcott on the 
right ogling over her glass of wine, and a 
golden-haired creature on the left to whom 
he was paying assiduous attentions. Oh, 
she hated them all !• How little did she think 
when inviting that set of flighty young wo- 
men, that Arthur would be the one to enter- 
tain them, and alone ! Oh, that was the most 
terrible thought of all — alone ! 

Well, anyway he was likely to hear him- 
self criticised : perhaps that would interfere 
somewhat with his entertainment and diges- 


The Editor''* s Busy Day 95 

tion. In order to smother her thoughts Nita 
went to work at the pile of letters. The pres- 
ence of the typewriter, a young lady with 
abnormally black eyes and champagne-col- 
ored hair, did not add to her equanimity. 
It seemed to her that that offensive person 
was staring at her very curiously. 

“Have you no work to do?” asked Nita, 
irritably. 

“I’m waiting for the correspondence,” 
eyeing a large diamond ring on her finger 
with an air of satisfaction. 

“Well, I — Fm not ready yet. Go out and 
get your lunch and come back.” 

“Why, it’s only ten o’clock,” protested the 
blonde head. 

“Well, then, walk around the block, or sit 
down in the park for half an hour. Don’t 
you see I’m nervous this morning ?” 

“ I guess you was out late last night,” said 
the typewriter, with a giggle. “I was to the 
ball of the Gentlemen’s Sons of the Fourth 
Ward. Mr. Skewey has written a notice of 
it for to-day’s paper.” 


96 


A Bargain in Souls 


“It shall not appear/’ saidNita, decidedly. 
‘‘I’m not going to conduct this paper in the 
interest of the Fourth Ward. That’s not so- 
ciety news.” 

“Well,” said the typewriter very much 
hurt, “if you can afford to offend Alderman 
Dooley, the president, by slighting his ball 
it’s not my fault. You remember he went 
bail for your police reporter when he came 
near getting jugged last week.” 

“ Jugged ? Jugged ? ” said Nita. “ What 
on earth is jugged?” 

“Why, put in jail for being found in the 
chimney of the Gotham Hotel, taking notes, 
while the mill-owners were holding a private 
meeting. You know ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, now I remember,” faintly. 
“Well, let the notice of the ball go in,” 
with a sigh; “ and just say to Mr. Skewey if 
he is outside that I will see him later about 
the society column.” 

“ You’d better not ruffle the Guv’nor this 
morning,” said the typewriter confidentially 
to a red-nosed reporter as they met by the 


The Editor's Busy Day 97 

ice-cooler. "He must have been up with 
those ward heelers all night, for he’s mad as 
a setting hen.” 

“ I don’t like the looks of that girl a bit,” 
said Nita to herself ; she has a bad face. 
I’ll reconstruct this office on a better basis be- 
fore I’m through ; ” and she attacked the pile 
of letters again. Tiring very soon of this 
monotonous work, she turned with a sigh to 
penning some editorials. 

“ Mr. Jowler, the sporting editor,” piped 
the office-boy before Nita had a chance to 
read a line. Mr. Jowler thrust his bullet- 
head in the door, nodded “ Mornin’, old man,” 
took a shot at the spittoon and lounged in. 

He was a broad-chested giant clad in cor- 
duroys of light brindle hue, and his broad 
face, lit by two watery-blue eyes, was quite 
in tone with the startling scarlet necktie that 
flamed on his shirt-bosom. 

He gave Nita’s hand such a friendly wrench 
when he sat down that the tears rose invol- 
untarily to her eyes. 

“Well, have you any news?” she asked, 


98 


A Bargain in Souls 


furtively wiping them with the corner of her 
handkerchief. What a very terrible person 
he must be to deal with ! He frightened her, 
with his husky voice and his hands like bat- 
tering-rams. 

“ News ? yelled Mr. Jowler, bringing down 
his fist with such a bang on the desk that Nita 
jumped in her seat. — “ News, me boy ? Why, 

my eyes if I ever got hold of such a story 

since I’ve been on the paper ! And it’s dead 
straight too. What’s the matter ? Got the 
ear-ache?” as Nita lifted her hands with a 
shudder at his profanity. 

“ Here, take a pull at this ; you’ll feel bet- 
ter,” slapping down a huge pocket-flask on 
the desk. “ Well, I wan’t to tell you the 
story,” said Mr. Jowler, not at all hurt be- 
cause she did not accept the offered refresh- 
ment, “You know Charley Dusenbury — the 
fellow that gets up midnight races and polo 
games by electric light on the ice, and such 
damn foolishness? Well, him and Corney 
Shoemacher, the millionaire’s son, gave a 
dinner at Torretti’s last night— see ? ” 


The Editor'^ s Busy Day 


99 


“ Yes,” said Nita, faintly. 

“ Well after they stacked their wittals and 
was feelin’ pretty good — yon know, you bin 
there,” with a chuckle and a dig in the ribs 
that nearly knocked the editor speechless — 
“what does Shoemacher do but get up an’ 
say, ‘Boys, I’ve got a treat for you. I’ve en- 
gaged a couple of pugilists for a shin-kicking 
contest. I never saw one myself, but they 
say it’s thrillin’.’ ” 

“ What is a shin-kicking contest ? ” asked 
Nita, huskily. 

“Oh, it’s very excitin’,” explained Mr. 
Jowler. “ You get two plug-uglies ” 

“ Plug-uglies ? ” 

“I mean pugilists — it’s all the same thing. 
And they kick at each other’s shins till one 
of ’em gets knocked out.” 

“Oh!” 

“ Well,” said Mr. Jowler, warming up with 
enthusiasm, “when he done talkin’, the. door 
opened and in walks ‘ Lop-eared Mike,’ and 
‘ brindle Mickey, the Lancashire Spider.’ It 
was the loveliest scrap I ever seen, and them 


100 


A Bargain in Souls 


dudes cheered as if they would bust, and 
Shoemacher he took his diamond pin out of 
his bosom and gave it to Lop-eared Mike, 
who was the winner. It’ll just make a splen- 
did story, ’cause the audience was all tony 
people. It’ll make a column with cuts, and 
all the sports in town’l want a paper.” 

Nita looked around the room, and then iX 
the burly figure in the chair, and ventured 
uneasily, but with a show of determination : 

“ I think, Mr. Jowler, that it must have 
been a very brutal exhibition, and unworthy 
to be recorded in the columns of a family 
newspaper. You should confine your articles 
entirely to gentlemanly sports.” 

“ What ! ” howled Mr. Jowler, half-rising 
out of his seat, while his face assumed an even 
ruddier hue than his necktie, “do you mean 
to say you ain’t going to publish this beau- 
tiful story it took me all night to get on to?” 

Nita withered before his glance, and took 
refuge behind the blank-book in which she 
had gathered some notes respecting the policy 
of a great newspaper. 


101 


The Editor's Busy Day 

“ I am convinced,’^ she said, in a very faint 
voice, “that a paper should be free from all 
accounts calculated to debase or barbarize 
the minds of its readers. Physical develop- 
ment and a love of open-air recreation should 
be cultivated in the columns devoted to sport, 
without catering to the brutal forces that are 
latent in human nature.” 

During this peroration, Mr. Jowler folded 
his hands and listened with mouth wide open. 

“Say,” he remarked, lighting a very bad 
cigar, “are you reading one of them tracts 
that come in by every mail, or don’t you feel 
well this morning?” 

“Nothing of the kind, Mr. Jowler; but I 
have decided to change the character of ‘ The 
Evening Owl.’ An editor’s first duty should 
be to elevate his journal’s tone.” 

“ I thought it was to elevate the circula- 
tion,” growled Mr. Jowler. 

“In your department you should discour- 
age exhibitions of brute force as much as 
possible, at the same time encouraging such 
healthy recreations as lawn-tennis — ” 


102 A Bargain in Souls 

“Lawn-tennis!” cried Jowler, as if the 
very word pained him to utter it. 

“Or croquet,” said Nita, blandly. 

“Croquet !” he moaned, looking at his big 
hands lovingly. “Wants me to devote my 
attention to croquet —me, ’Rastus Jowler, that 
was trainer for ‘ The Mouse’ and ‘ Humpy 
Loo,’ the Boston Boy. You’ll be wantin’ me 
to be playin’ that type-writer the next thing.” 
He sat in moody silence for a moment, and 
then brought his fist down on the desk with 
a bang that upset the inkstand. 

“ I don’t know whether you’re foolin’ or not, 
Vaness, but that story’s got to go in the paper ; 
now you hear me 1 I told some of the sports to 
look out for some lively news in ‘ The Owl’ to- 
day, and I ain’t goin’ to be made a fool of for 
you or no other editor. Nice way to treat a 
man who saved you from a horsewhippen’ 
only last week in front of the Astor House. 
I’ve got a contract to run the sports of this pa- 
per for a year yet, and I’m going to do it. If 
that story don’t appear. I’ll clean out the office, 
and there won’t be any paper at all to-day.” 


103 


The Editor's Busy Day 

Nita shivered as she surveyed the giant, 
and referred to her book ; but it contained no 
advice suitable to the occasion. The cloud 
of smoke that wreathed Mr. Jowler’s massive 
features gave him the appearance of some 
terrible genie ; it was certainly the best policy 
to mollify him. 

‘‘Well, we won’t try to change the sport- ^ 
ing columns right away,” she ventured, tim- 
idly. “ That may take some time — ” 

“Ah! I thought you was only foolin’,” 
smiled Mr. Jowler. “ I knowed it,” crushing 
her hand in a mighty grip. “ One of your 
jokes, I suppose. Well, I guess I’ll go and 
write my story up,” aiming a shot at the cus- 
pidor. “I want it for the first edition, or 
some of the boys on the other papers may get 
hold of it. So-long ! ” lounging towards the 
door. He went out chuckling to himself, 

“ Wanted me to write up croquet ! ” shak- 
ing his huge shoulders. “ Wanted me to write 
up croquet I ” And she could still hear him 
laughing as he made his way down the room. 

Nita looked at the cloud of smoke he had 


104 


A Bargain in Souls 


left in his wake, at the impress of his huge 
figure on the cushions of the chair, and 
sighed long and deeply. “ What a very ter- 
rible person ! ” she murmured. “ I see it 
will take some time to bring him around to 
my views; anyway, I have made a begin- 
ning.” 

She had just started again on the pile Q|f 
letters, when the office-boy announced Mr. 
Gargoyle. 

This gentleman, who wore a plaid suit of 
astonishing pattern, large gold eye-glasses, 
and a forbidding squint, sidled into a chair, 
after bowing brusquely to the chief. 

“ You have seen the papers this morning ? ” 
he asked in a sharp voice. 

‘‘Of — of— course,” said Nita, who had 
glanced over one journal on the way down- 
town. 

“ Well, then you know that ‘ The Blonde 
Brigand ’ was a complete failure at the 
Fourth Avenue Theatre last night.” 

“ I saw something of the kind.” 

“ It is to our interest, however, to let them 


105 


The Editor's Busy Day 

down easy. The manager has doubled his 
advertising space this week, and the leading 
lady has promised us an exclusive 
story if we write her up. Her husband has 
follow^ed her on from the West, and will sit 
in a box every night heavily armed. He has 
no intention of shooting ; but after we pub- 
lish an account of the scandal, everybody will 
crowd to the theatre in the hope that he will 
pink his wife when she comes on the stage. 
There is no quarrel between them, you know, 
but the husband, as a man of business, wants 
to give his wife a boom, and no cheaper way 
could be found to advertise her.’’ 

Nita would have interrupted, but her volu- 
ble visitor left her no opportunity to reply. 

“Miss Caramel, of the Folly Theatre, 
offers us the exclusive right to the story that 
she is to be waylaid and robbed in the cathe- 
dral. Offer refused. Public would be sure 
to suspect something fishy. ’Nother actress 
wishes to get robbed of her diamonds in some 
dramatic manner. Offer also refused. Game 
played out.” 


106 A Bargain in Souls 

Mr. Gargoyle referred thoughtfully to his 
notes. 

“Ah, Yes. New play at the Odeon. Same 
manager that refused your drama last year, 
you remember. Til tear the piece to tatters 
and have a fling at the manager, with some 
side remarks about the theatre being unsafe 
and a general warning to the public. Oh, 
you leave it to me to fix him !” chuckled Mr. 
Gargoyle. “It’s just nuts to me to go for 
these fellows.” 

“But was the new play bad?” asked Nita, 
referring to her blank-book. 

“Bad? No. One of the best this year; 
but that don’t matter. You leave it to me 
to pick holes in the production — that’s all,” 
with a knowing leer. 

“ But is it right, out of a spirit of revenge 
to condemn a play ? ” 

“Eh, what’s that?” pricking up his long 
ears. “ Why, the last orders I had from you 
since the day your drama was returned was 
to hammer ’em. Those were the identical, 
words you used— ‘Hammer ’em’ — and I have 


The Editcr'^s Busy Day 107 

been makinp^ it precious hot for them ever 
since,” grinning. 

“ I am afraid this paper needs moral re- 
construction,” said Nita. 

Moral nuthin’,” said Mr. Gargoyle, 
bluntly. It’s making lots of money.” 

‘‘ But that is not everything,” referring to 
the blank-book. “ The stage has come to be 
a great public educator, and it should be the 
mission of the dramatic critic to encourage 
and popularize that which is best in 
stage literature. What do you intend to 
give us as the leader in your department to- 
day?” 

“Well, I’ve got three ready, and you can 
take your choice. There’s ‘ Toes and Tights,’ 
with illustrations of the legs of queens of the 
burlesque and diagrams of their feet —a very 
interesting article that will please the men. 
Then I have another graphic description of 
‘ Actresses Bathing,’ with views of each lady 
disporting in her tub at home. That’s a 
corker?” rubbing his hands enthusiastically. 
“The other paper is called ‘Confessions of a 


108 A Bargain in Souls 

Soubrette,’ gathered from experiences of some 
of my friends on the stage.” 

“And nothing on dramatic literature —the 
advancement of the stage?” moaned Nita, 
clasping her hands with a gesture of sadness. 

“ What’s the use of such stuff in a popular 
paper?” said Gargoyle, bluntly. “Who’s 
goin’ to read it ? What they want to know is 
what actors and actresses eat and drink and 
smoke ; if they fight with their husbands and 
wives ; what colored stockings Miss Montrose 
prefers ; and who the mysterious lady is that 
carries Mr. Marmaduke away in a cab after 
the show.” 

“ But you have an opportunity, when there 
is a revival of the Shakesperian and Eliza- 
bethian drama, to encourage it, to show the 
public its beauties, and slowly inculcate in 
them a desire for the best dramatic liter- 
ature ?” 

“Perhaps,” said Mr. Gargoyle. 

“Now there was a production of ‘ Cymbe- 
line ’ last night. Give an elaborate analysis 
of the performance ; the history of the first 


The Editors Busy Day 109 

productions in England; anecdotes of the 
company who performed it.’* 

“ You have changed your opinions decid- 
edly, Mr. Vaness, since last week,” ventured 
Gargoyle, mildly. 

“What do you mean ? ” 

“Well, as the Temple Theatre has a stock 
company that never gets talked about, and 
its members are painfully respectable, you 
instructed me only to give a few lines to the 
productions of that house.” 

“ Well, oblige me in the future by paying 
more attention to the classic drama. Write 
a strong leading article on this production.” 

“ I can’t very well.” 

“ Why not ? ” 

“ Well, because I sent the office-boy.” 
“Oh!” 

She would have said more if another vis- 
itor had not been announced at that moment. 
Mr. Gargoyle, surprised at the turn the con- 
versation had taken, managed to escape dur- 
ing this moment of hesitation. 

The new arrival was not of prepossessing 


110 


A Bargain in Souls 

appearance. He had a long pink face framed 
in sandy whiskers, and a striped suit of 
clothes that hung in disordered folds on his 
bony frame. He was chewing the end of a 
cigar, and swaggered in with an assuring grin 
on his face. 

“Say, are you the editor?’’ he asked, 
plumping into the nearest chair. 

“ Yes,” said Nita. 

“ I’m Boodleby,” he remarked, with that 
confidential grin. 

“ Well, what of it ? ” said Nita, slightly ir- 
ritated. 

The visitor was disappointed at the lack of 
enthusiasm his presence produced. 

“ Why you don’t seem to remember me. 
You wrote me up in this here paper only a 
few weeks ago. Don’t you remember when 
Judge Nixon’s wife o’ Slagtown, eloped with 
a tall, handsome stranger ? ” pulling his 
stubby whiskers with caressing fingers. 

“ Yes, I remember the incident.” 

“ Well, I w’as the ‘ tall handsome stranger,’ 
as you put it in the paper. The identical 


Ill 


The Editor'^s Tusy Day 

individdle that bore off the Judge’s wife.” 

No ! ” echoed Nita, incredulously. 

‘‘ Yes,” he said. “ I don’t know what there 
is about me that always fetches the women. 
Lor’ bless you, I don’t go out of the way to 
fascinate ’em ; all I got to do is to stand un- 
der a family tree, and they just plumps down 
into my arms like so many ripe plums.” 

“Well, I don’t see what your personal 
charms have got to do with me or ‘ The Even- 
ing Owl,’ ” said Nita, freezingly. 

“ Well, that’s just what I came here to ex- 
plain,” remarked the stranger. “ I know 
there must be lots of men who would like to 
get rid of their wives, only they don’t know 
how to go about it. Well, I propose to make 
arrangements with this -paper to conduct the 
elopement department. You get exclusive 
stories, and I get all the glory. It’s easy 
enough to find out when a couple don’t get 
along well together, and, after sizing up the 
female, I can charm her away in a few weeks. 
I dare say there’s lots o’ husbands who 
would be willin’ to come down handsome 


112 A Bargain in Souls 

to get rid of their wives without the trou- 
ble of payin’ for evidence in a divorce suit. 
What do you say? I’ll begin to-morrow, 
if you say so, and give you a sensation for 
next Tuesday’s paper.” 

“ You mistake Mr. Boodleby, I am afraid, 
the object of a great newspaper. Its mission 

is, not to encourage scandal, but to suppress 

it. ” 

“Oh! thats new to me.” 

“ ‘ The daily journal should be a reflex of 
all that is noblest in life, that its readers may 
be lifted up to higher things, and learn the 
sacred character of their mission in the 
world,”’ reading from her blank-book. 

Mr. Boodleby looked around the room, and 
then at Nita, with astonishment. 

“ Say,” he remarked with a drawl, “ are 
you sure I didn’t stray into the Methody Book 
Concern by mistake, instead of the office of 
‘ The Evening Owl’ ? ” shifting around in his 
chair uneasily. 

“ No mistake whatever. This is the office 
of the paper. 


113 


The Edito7''’s Busy Day 

“ Well, I’m d d ! ” in a hoarse whisper. 

“ And you don’t want my services to work up 
sensations ? You don’t need me as elopement 
editor? ’’ 

“ I am sorry to say I must decline your 
services.” 

“Well, he said, gathering himself together 
with an effort, “ it ain’t my fault if you starve 
your readers, when you got a good chance to 
stir ’em up. * I dare say I won’t be long out 
of an engagement.” 

He lounged towards the door, and then 
turned towards Nita and eyed her a moment 
critically. 

“Say, are you married?” 

“Well— yes.” 

“Perhaps you might need my services 
some day, in case you wanted to get rid of 
your wife.” 

“Sir ! ” indignantly. 

“ Oh, no offence. I like to oblige members 
of the profession Here’s my card;” and 
dropping a piece of pasteboard on the desk, 


8 


114 A Bargain in Souls 

Mr. Boodleby, still chewing bis cigar, ambled 
out of the room. 

“ Oh ! ” cried Nita, pressing her hands to 
her forehead, “ are these the sort of people I 
must meet every day ? I shall go mad in a 
week. My head aches already from the con- 
stant babble. The excitement of last night 
must have unnerved me.’* 

She sat there for a moment Avith her face 
buried in her hands. 

“Ah! I see it all,” she said suddenly. 
“ Out of a spirit of mean revenge, Arthur has 
instructed these people to come here and 
worry me. He wanted to disgust me with the 
situation on the very first day, in hopes that 
I would get on my knees to him and acknowl- 
edge my mistake. But I won’t give in — I 
Won’t!” decidedly; “I will stand the siege 
as long as he, if I die by the way ! ” with a 
half sob. 

Then her eyes fell on the clock ticking 
noisily on the top of the desk. 

“ Four o’clock,” she murmured. “ All the 
morning gone, and so little accomplished! 


The Editor's Busy Day 


115 


Well, anyway, I have made a beginning. 
They must be just arriving now — Arthur and 
all those girls. That horrid Miss Olcott will 
be seated on his right, and —oh ! ” 

The picture seemed to choke her utterance. 
She rose, and walked up and down the room 
impatiently, finally pausing in the middle of 
the floor. 

‘‘I — I can’t do any work,” she murmured, 
plaintively, “ for thinking of him alone with 
all those girls. I know what I’ll do. I’ll 
stop for the day, and hurry home and sur- 
prise them. Yes, if the paper never comes 
out. There ! ” dashing a tear out of her eye ; 
“I’ll—” 

“ Mr. Miggins,” announced the office-boy, 
ushering in a scraggy young man with flaming 
red whiskers, who looked at Nita, a little sus- 
piciously. 

“ Mr. Vaness,” he said, timidly. 

“I can’t listen to you now,” dragging on 
a silk hat with trembling fingers. “ I — I have 
particular business up-town, and cannot de- 
lay a minute.” 


116 


A Bargain in Souls 

“ But I have a very important story, said 
Mr. Miggins, ‘‘ that won’t keep. If it appears 
in the first edition, we shall be ahead of all 
the other papers.” 

“ Very well, very well. Write it up and 
send it downstairs. Now go ! I have not a 
moment to spare,” dragging the stovepipe 
down over her ears. 

Mr. Miggins departed with a smiling 
face. 

“Are the letters ready to be answered?” 
asked the offensive type-writer, sticking her 
nose in the door. 

‘‘No — yes — that is, no,” stammered Nita; 
“ you will have to answer them as you see fit. 
Take them to the city editor. I have a very 
important engagement that I must keep,” 
hurrying towards the door. 

“ Is that story of Mr. Miggins’s to go in ? ” 
bawled a voice over the partition. 

“ Certainly,” answered Nita. 

“But—” 

“ Go and do as I say, and don’t keep me 
waiting.” 


The Editor's Busy Day 117 

Some growling was heard from without, 
and then silence. 

“Mr. Skewey, the society editor, would 
like to see you,” put in the office-boy. 

“ I won’t see anybody. Get out ! ” ex- 
claimed Nita ; and thrusting her hat over her 
eyes she rushed out of the room. 

“ Well, did you ever see such a roaring tor- 
nado ? ” remarked the type-writer. “ He give 
me quite a turn. I wonder what’s up ? ” 

“ Some woman. I’ll bet,” said the dramatic 
editor. “ You should have heard him lect- 
uring me about the dignity of my position ! 
Of course I am not going to pay any atten- 
tion. Had your lunch, Miss Holloway ? ” 

“ Not yet.” 

“ Well come out with me, and then we’ll 
take in a matinee.” 


V 

GREAT TRIBULATIONS. 

Vaness settled himself on the sofa, with a 
novel, for a long, lazy read. He had hardly 
finished the first page, however, when the cook 
entered, a formidable-looking party with red 
hair and a stormy eye. She was dressed, 
evidently for a holiday, in a green dress 
spangled with daisies, and a pink bonnet 
covered with large blue roses. 

“ I thought, mum. I’d drop in an’ tell yez 
I wuz goin’ for the day,” she said with a cour- 
tesy. 

“ Going for the day ! ” murmured Yaness, 
aghast. “ But you can’t, Mary; I’m going 
to have company.” 


118 


Great Tribulations 


119 


“Faix, yez told me only yesterday that I 
might go to Weehawken, to see me brother 
Finny, that gothurtedin the hriek-yard. Is 
it a liar ye’re tryin’ to make me out, mum ? ” 
taking a firmer hold on her umbrella. 

“No— o,” stammered the other, appalled 
at the glare in these awful eyes : “ But really 

J5 

“Faix, I haven’t had a blessed day off 
since Chewsday, an’ me workin’ me knuckles 
to the marrer noight an’ day, wid the wash 
big enough for a regiment, an’ Mr. Vaness 
cornin’ in for somethin’ to ate at two of a 
mornin’. There’s work enough for tw^o gerls 
here, let alone one, in a kitchen that I wouldn’t 
bury a cat in, an’ the gaspipes leakin’ so I 
ain’t got any shmell left in me nose at all, at 
all; and a shtove that smokes so I can’t tell 
whether I’m cuckin’ pig’s feet or biled inions ! 
No lady’d stand it for tin minutes but me, 
that has such a gentle-loike dishposition. An’ 
now yez object to for me takin’ a few hours 
off for me health, when it’s to the mountains 
I ought to go or the sayshore, at your own 


120 


A Barga'ni in Souls 

expinse, for breaking down my constitootion. 
Shure, when yez wanted to go off for an after- 
noon, wasn’t I always ready to oblige yez 
like a lady by stayin’ at home —eh?” with 
another glare. 

“ Yes, yes. I — I believe you were,” retreat- 
ing behind the novel, with a shiver. 

“ Ah ! ye’ll go a good ways to find another 
gerl as conshidarate as me,” wagging her 
head. 

Vaness thought it best at this moment to 
assert his authority. 

‘‘Well, you can’t go, Mary ; so that settles 
it. I expect company, and you must be here 
to prepare the supper.” 

The cook took a still firmer hand on her 
umbrella, as if she intended to use it. 

“ And I’m to have company of my own, if 
ye plaze, an’ quite as important as thim dudes 
an’ shtuck-oop things I’ve had to cuck for this 
mony a day. Often have I been timpted to 
to drop a sup o’ pizen in their vittles, bad 
cess to ’em ! — and it ’ud be a good thing for 
the warld. I’m thinkin’, if they wuz out of it. 


Great Tribulatiofis 


121 


Well, divil a hand will I lay to a pot or pan 
the day, after spindin’ two hours on me toi- 
let. Yez can cuck for yer company yerself ; 
an’ if they don’t doi av the efficts, may I 
never live to see another Sint Pathrick’s 
Day ! ” 

“ Mary, I will not have another word. You 
are a very impudent creature.” 

“ So it’s a quarrel ye’d like to pick wid me, 
eh ? ” resting her hands on her hips. “ Well, 
yez can save your breath, for I’ve made up 
me moind that this house wasn’t ilegand 
enough for a lady of moy talents for some 
time. Me friends have often said it’s a shame 
for a foine gerl like me to be wastin’ me life 
slavin’ for common people that don’t know 
how to trate a guest. An’ instead of thankin 
me for puttin’ up wid yer didoes, I’m trated 
like a common manial. Y"ez ought to get a 
Chinaiser, or one o* thim Eyetalian divils, 
bad luck to ’em ! For it’s not fur a lady like 
meself to be livin’ in a bedroom like a cup- 
board, that narrer I have to put me fate out 
the windy whin I want to go to sleep — 


122 


A Bargain i?i Souls 


“ Mary, you are very impudent. Come 
around for your wages to-morrow. I will not 
have any more of your insolence,” said Van- 
ess. 

Miss Flaherty sniffed scornfully, and 
brought her umbrella down on the floor with 
such a bang that the lady on the sofa jumped 
with apprehension. 

“ Oh, I know the reshpict that’s due one 
lady to another, more perhaps than thim that 
sets themselves up to be me betters, though 
by what right they do it I don’t know, for I 
never knew of a family being supported by 
the stub of a pencil that ever come to any 
good at all, at all. It shtands to raison that 
there must be somethin’ crucked, so it’s a 
gud thing I’m goin’ before I’m dragged into 
court an’ get sintenced for an aliboy.” 

“Will you go?” howled Vaness. 

“Oh,” I’m going; don’t excite yourself,” 
said Miss Flaherty, with offended dignity. 
“ Wudyez like to go through me trunk to say if 
I’ve carried off any of yer shpoons, though divil 
a one in the place is w’orth carryin’ off, for 


Great Tribulations 


123 


tliey’re all plated, the first I ever ate off of in 
me born days since I took sarvice. I don’t 
wonder yez’ll feel relayed gettin’ me out of 
the way, for it’s embarassin’ to have yer 
guests takin’ me always for the lady o’ the 
house, an’ the master makin’ eyes at me that 
hard that if I hadn‘t been an honest gerl an’ 
known me place — ” 

This time Vaness rose in a rage, and tak- 
ing Miss Flaherty by the shoulders, pushed 
her forcibly out of the room and locked the 
door behind her. 

Then he sank down on the sofa bathed in 
perspiration and gasping heavily. Miss Fla- 
herty could still be heard mumbling outside ; 
but as he did not answer, she finally walked 
across the hall ’and went out the street door, 
banging it heavily behind her. 

“ Ah,” he sighed, with relief, “ at least I’ve 
got rid of that ogress, I thought she was go- 
ing to stay here all morning. A pleasant 
outlook for my little company ! No cook and 
nothing to eat in the house. I shall have to 
get a caterer to send in the supper,” wiping 


124 


A BargaUi in Souls 

his brow with a trembling hand. “ I feel ex- 
hausted already, and I expected to have such 
a quiet morning.” 

He settled himself back among the cush- 
ions, and began to read again, soon absorbed 
in the interest of the story. 

“ Ting-a-ling-a-ling ! ” went the door bell, 
Vaness continued to read on. 

“ Ting-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling ! ” 

‘'Oh dash that bell ! ” jumping up angrily. 
Then he remembered that the cook was out 
and that the maid had been discharged. 

Witli a groan and a face flushed with anger, 
Vaness obeyed the summons. 

His frown changed to a sunny smile as his 
eyes met those of a charming girl who tripped 
lightly over the threshold and kissed him 
noisily on both cheeks. The flush of anger 
was supplanted by a rosy blush at this junct- 
ure, but, strangely, he did not find the attack 
as unpleasant as it was unexpected. 

“ I dare say you did not think I should be 
around so'early ” chirped the fair visitor, put- 
ting her arm around his waist familiarly as 


Great Tribulations 


125 


they passed into the parlor. “ But I just re- 
ceived this dress from Madame Fogarty’s and 
I knew you were just dying to see it. Isn’t 
it just too lovely for anything?” and she 
sidled up to the pier glass turning and twist- 
ing and shaking out the tournure to display 
the costume to an advantage. “ Pa growled 
awfully about the bill, but then he always 
does. Don’t it become me beautifully ? ” 

“ You look charming in it,” unable to re- 
sist the temptation of smoothing out the 
sleeves and arranging the collar about the 
firm white throat with his own hands. 

“ I think there is too much tournure, don’t 
you ? ” asked Miss Olcott, trying to get a back 
view of herself by looking over her shoulder. 

“Eh, what’s that?” asked Vaness slightly 
puzzled. 

“ Too much tournure. It may be the fash- 
ion but I don’t believe in going about looking 
like a female centaur. Wouldn’t you have 
it taken in a little ? ” 

“What in thunder is she talking about?” 
he asked himself. Then aloud, “ yes — yes, 


126 


A Bargain hi Souls 


but I dare say that after you have worn it 
awhile you will sort o’-sort o’ grow into it.” 

Miss Olcott looked at him somewhat in 
surprise but did not reply at once. 

‘‘Ithink those plastrons are just too sweet ” 
she murmured. “ And those tiny reveres 
down the front. How are you going to have 
the front of your dress made ? ” turning to- 
wards him quickly. 

“ I haven’t made up my mind ” he stam- 
mered, reddening. “ Possibly with Irish pip- 
ings, a fluted apron and a shirred seam,” try- 
ing to look as if he was high up in dress- 
making. 

“ Irish pipings — fluted apron and shirred 
seam? ” 

“ That’s it — and a bouffant waist and re- 
trousse collar.” 

/‘Why I never heard of such things,” 
aghast. 

“ Possibly not. My dress-maker is just 
from Paris and brought a lot of new ideas 
along with her.” 

“ Well I shan’t get Madame Fogarty to 


Great Tribulations 


127 


make me anything more— she’s behind the 
age. Just to think I haven’t any bouffant 
waist or retrousse collar or any of the things 
you mentioned. I’ve a good mind to send 
this dress back and tell her I don’t want the 
nasty old-fashioned thing.” 

Miss Olcott stamped her foot and looked 
ready to cry. 

“ Never mind, my dea’",” said Vaness, 
soothingly. “You couldn’t look any sweeter 
than you do to-day, so don’t think any more 
about it.” 

It took some time for Vaness to console his 
fair visitor but he did not seem to mind the 
task a bit. 

“ As your other dress is an illuminated 
silk” said Miss Vaness, “it would be real 
cute to have a Spanish jacket with dove-col- 
ored vest underneath. Just the thing, you 
know, to show off your statuesque bust.” 

“So it would,” thoughtfully. “Eeally I 
never thought of the burst — I mean the bust, 
but now I come to think of it I guess I will.” 

“ And filagree buttons of iron and gilt with 


128 Bargain in Souls 

a plain skirt. Go upstairs and get the stuff, 
1 will pin it on you just to show the effect.” 

“ Oh, I couldn’t really, I don’t know where 
it is. It’s locked up” he stammered, appalled 
at the thought. 

‘‘ Why you are blushing like a school-girl 
at her first ball,” cried Miss Olcott. I only 
wish I could get rosy so easily, for it’s very 
becoming. It’s not much use pinching your 
cheeks just before you enter a room for that 
passes off so quickly and then it never looks 
like the real article. How do you manage it 
anyway? Teach me how; I’m afraid my 
blushing days are over ” with a profound 
sigh. 

“ I’m afraid they are,” said Vaness not 
thinking how uncomplimentary the speech 
sounded ; “ Oh, I’ve had such a time this 
inorning with our cook, she got so impudent 
that finally I had to take her bodily and push 
her out of the house.” 

“ Weren’t you afraid ? I should have been 
awfully. You’re a plucky little thing if you 
do look so slight.” 


Great Tribulations 


129 


“ Oh, servants are easy enough to manage 
if you put your foot down. But come over 
here to the sofa and tell me what you have 
been about for the past week.** 

“Oh Tve had such a narrow escape,’* said 
Miss Olcott when they were comfortably 
seated, “ you know of course that I was just 
as good as engaged to Horace Sedger.** 

“ Yes I heard a rumor to that effect, but I 
didn*t know it was settled.** 

“ Well, the affair is off anyway. You see 
we heard some queer stories about him from 
friends in the West, but then a young man 
who don*t get talked about in these days 
don*t amount to much. Well, the other night, 
at Mrs. Brompton*s, I was introduced to a Mrs. 
Faxton, a long, snaky sort of a woman with 
dyed hair. Somehow the name of Mr. Sedger 
happened to be mentioned, and she said, ‘ oh 
he*s a very good sort of a fellow ; I married 
him in *76, but as we didn*t travel very well 
in double harness we got the law to cut the 
traces and skipped out.* Think of that,** 
Miss Olcott sobbed, “ a nice story for his 


9 


130 


A Bargain in Souls 


fiancee to hear. And when I spoke to Horace 
about his marriage to this person, this lemon- 
colored thing, what do you suppose was his 
reply ? ” 

‘‘ Can’t imagine.” 

“ He took out his note-book and said, ‘ Fax- 
ton ? Faxton ? That must have been Aline — 
no it was Elaine — here I have made a note of 
it. Yes, I believe I did marry her in 76, 
though I’d almost forgotten the occurrence. A 
very pleasant sort of a person if my memory 
serves me right, I advise you to cultivate her, 
Alice. You see, she was married to me and 
you never have been. You might profit by 
her experience,’ did you ever hear of such 
impudence — think of the man I was engaged 
to standing up and telling me all that ? ” 

‘‘ And what did you do ? ” 

‘‘Do? Why I walked out of the room like 
an injured Queen, and the next day I wrote 
him a letter breaking off the whole affair.” 

“ That was right.” 

“But I’m not out of his toils yet -far from 
it. You see he wanted all his presents back 


Great Tribulations 


131 


and sent an itemized bill to papa for so many 
carriage-rides, so many theatre tickets and 
so many dinners, setting down the price of 
each dish.” 

“ What did your father say to that T 

“ Well you know how he hates any trouble 
or fuss. He grumbled around and finally 
said Horace would probably bring suit for 
that bill and might win it, and as we were 
awfully in debt he didn’t know but that I’d 
better marry the man and be done with it. 
But I won’t ! I won’t ! I won’t ! ” stamping her 
foot savagely. “ I don’t think I shall ever 
get married now,” she said, after a moment’s 
thought, “ it’s such a terrible risk. Not one 
of my friends has made a success of the 
speculation. Just take your own case. Could 
any one be so miserable as you, my poor 
darling, chained to that unfeeling creature 
for life.” 

“ You are very wrong,” cried Vaness brid- 
ling up, ** I am very much in love with my 
husband. He is all that is kind and noble 
and good !” 


132 A Bargain in Souls 

Miss Alcott looked at her friend full in 
the face for a moment and then burst into a 
peal of laughter. 

“ Well I don’t see what you find to laugh 
about,” he said very much offended. 

“ I was only amused to think what a silly, 
confiding, little goose you are, my dear. 
Why, the very last time I saw you, you were in 
tears. You didn’t tell me in as many words 
that Mr. Vaness had been brutal to you that 
morning but I could easily read it in your 
face. And so you have made up again and 
are as loving as two turtle doves,” poking at 
him with the handle of her parasol in the 
most maddening way. ‘‘ There is something 
I might tell you that might shake your child- 
ish trust in your husband,” said Miss Alcott 
carelessly tracing out a pattern in the car- 
pet with the tip of her varnished shoe, “ but 
I wont.” 

“ Oh, do,” pleaded Vaness eagerly wonder- 
ing what this vague insinuation meant. 

“ But it w^ouldn’t be right,” protested Miss 
Alcott shaking her curly head. 


Great Tribulations 


133 


“Does it concern Mr. Vaness? 

“ Well — slightly.” 

“ Then I have a right to know.” 

Miss Alcott looked furtively around the 
room a moment and then, bending over her 
companion with a pitying glance, whispered, 
“ My poor darling, I have positive proof that 
Mr. Vaness is attentive to another woman ! ” 

“It’s a d — lie ! ” roared Vaness quite for- 
getting his position. 

“ Oh, Nita,” covering her ears with her 
pretty hands, “ why, you said a swear word.” 

“I — I forgot myself” blushing, “ but it’s 
so very terrible what you are telling me 
about Mr. Vaness that I was quite unmanned 
— I mean imwomaned.” 

“ I suppose you hear your husband swear 
so much at home that you get used to it.” 

“ You are very wrong — I assure you, Olive, 
that Mr. Vaness never swears. His language 
is always refined even when he is angry.” 

“ That is very kind in you to condone his 
faults, but I know he has the reputation of 
being very profane.” 


134 


A Bargain in Souls 

‘‘ Oh he has, has he?’’ growled Vaness to 
himself, “ I fancy you are responsible for it, 
you little huzzy.” 

“ Not that I mind swearing,” continued 
the visitor, “ not at all ; it must be quite re- 
freshing I should think wdien you are real 
angry. I think somebody ought to invent a 
Polite Profanity that the upper classes could 
adopt. It seems rather hard that the poor 
and vulgar have such a vocabulary of strong 
language while we have to content ourselves, 
when we are just burning up with rage, by 
exclaiming, “ How very annoying,” or “ Oh 
how very vexing.” Why, do you know that 
sometimes I just feel like rushing off to my 
rooms and having a good swear for half an 
hour at the top of my lungs.” 

“ Oh, you do, do you,” mumbled Vaness to 
himself. “ A nice sort of person you are to 
be my wife’s chosen friend and acquaintance. 
I’ll soon freeze you out.” 

Then he added aloud “But you haven’t 
told me how you heard of the terrible secret 
about my husband.” 


Great Tribulations 


135 


“ It came about in the queerest way,” pur- 
sued Miss Alcott glibly; “But I am glad to 
be able to open your eyes to the truth — you 
have been deceived long enough, poor dear,” 
stroking her friend’s hair in the most exas- 
perating manner. “You know my brother 
Jim belongs to the same club as Mr. 
Vaness.” 

“Yes, I know, the Bounders’ Club, well 
what of it ? ” 

“ The other night when your husband was 
leaving the billiard room, he dropped a piece 
of paper, a note, and Jim brought it home 
and showed it to me. I knew you wouldn’t 
be satisfied unless you had the most circum- 
stantial proofs, young wives are all such 
geese, so I brought the letter around for your 
own inspection, and here it is,” drawing a 
piece of crumpled paper out of her bosom, 
“ a love letter of the most ardent kind ar- 
ranging for an elopement, read it,” thrust- 
ing it into her hands, “ What do you think 
of that ? ” 

Vaness took the paper with an expression 


136 A Bargain in Souls 

of doubt, but at a glance he seemed to rec- 
ognize it. 

“ Why you infernal fool,“ he blurted out, 
again forgetting his position, “ this is a letter 
from a love story he was writing ; this must 
be part of the manuscript which your broth- 
er obligingly picked up.” 

“ And you believe that,” incredulously. 

“ Why of course, don’t I know all about it.” 

“ That’s all the thanks 1 get for warning 
you,” exclaimed Miss Olcott, almost ready to 
cry and very much hurt that she had not 
produced the expected effect. “I might have 
known that you were so much in love, you’d 
not believe anything against your husband. 
Well that’s the last time I ever try to do you 
a kindness, Nita Vaness, there ! And I don’t 
care if your husband runs off with a whole 
female seminary or the cook— And I won’t be 
called an infernal fool. I wonder you can 
speak so coarsely to a lady ; but I suppose 
you pick up such bad habits from that brute 
of a husband — And I don’t want any of your 
nasty pink supper— And I shan’t speak to 


Great Tribulations 


137 


you again, for IVe begun to think, with 
many others, that your not a proper person 
for me to associate with/’ And bubbling 
over with anger. Miss Olcott flounced out of 
the room in a whirl of silken skirts, leaving 
Vaness overcome on the sofa. 

“Well!” he exclaimed, after she had gone 
out, “There’s a nice sort of a friend for my 
wife to have, I must say. Why she’d do 
credit to an Academy for blackmailing in 
partnership with her precious brother, who 
goes around picking up people’s papers and 
reading them and trying to make trouble. I 
think I shall start a black list of Nita’s friends 
if Miss Olcott is a fair specimen. No won- 
der the poor little thing is miserable with 
such a confidential adviser and comforter 
and he began walking up and down in a 
nervous state of irritation. 

Ting-a-ling-a-ling ! 

“Confound that bell, there it goes again — 
am I not to know a moment’s peace,” with a 
groan. “Give me back my old busy life in 
Printing House Square, and I will resign. 


138 Bargahi in Souls 

without a pang, this quiet existence of the 
home,” shaking his head dolefully. 

“We haven’t got any cold victuals,” he 
growled after opening the door to a seedy 
individual with a large mourning band on 
his hat and a red nose. 

“I only called,” said the seedy person 
meekly, “on a matter of business, my dear 
Mrs. Vaness,” putting his foot, clad in rusty 
gaiters, across the sill, so that Arthur could 
not shut the door. 

“Great heavens, can this be another one of 
my wife’s friends,” growled Vaness, as he re- 
luctantly admitted this unwelcome visitor. 

“I came in the interest of the cause,” 
murmured the red nosed man, as he seated 
himself on the edge of a chair with his hat 
between his legs. 

“What do you mean by the cause ?” asked 
Vaness bluntly. 

“Surely, my dear madam, you have at- 
tended enough of our meetings to understand 
the purport of my words. Have you not 
yourself spoken eloquently in the interests 


Great Tribulations 139 

of the Society for the Promotion of Female 
Freedom 

“Never opened my mouth on the subject,’’ 
said Vaness freezingly, resolved at one blow 
to sever Nita’s connection with her (^lub. 
“Old man, you have been drinking — I am 
utterly opposed to your Society, root and 
branch. It ought to be suppressed by the 
police. It is the cause of all the divorce 
suits in the city. You ought to call it the 
Society for the Promotion of Female Suffer- 
ing, for its only influence is to make women 
dissatisfied with their life and discontented.” 

“I had hoped that you would give me the 
subscription you had promised,” murmured 
the seedy man timidly, drawing up his knees. 

“I never promised a cent — What for, to 
support you in idleness? Why don’t you 
go to work like other men, instead of hang- 
ing on to the skirts of a lot of silly women, 
and wheedling money out of them, which I 
dare say you spend in no good purpose. 

“My — my— dear madam — really — ” 

“Shut up ! I have not had my say. If 


140 


A Bar gam in Souls 


you had come to me for money to suppress 
this Society, you should have it freely, though 
I would rather trust it to better hands. Go 
home and try and make an honest living, if 
you know how and don’t play the bunko 
steerer in respectable homes or you will get 
me in trouble.” 

“You — you— are excited,” murmured the 
red nosed man, tremulously ; “per — haps I 
had better call another day,” edging towards 
the door. 

“If you do, you will not find me as good 
natured as I am this morning. There, you’ve 
dropped your lunch out of your hat,” as a 
parcel fell out of the stovepipe in his hasty 
exit. 

“Perhaps I have made a mistake in the 
house,” looking around him very much be- 
wildered. 

“I think you have. I suppose it was East 
instead of West, that you were looking for. 
Good morning!” and the missionary was 
hurried through the door, which slammed 
lehind him. 


Great Tribulations 


141 


‘‘Ah!” gasped Vaness faintly, as he sank 
down in a huddled heap on the sofa, “I got 
rid of him easily, and I fancy Nita will meet 
with a cold reception if she ever visits the 
Female Freedom party again with her proper 
spirit. My morning has not been altogether 
spent in vain. I have cut one unworthy 
friend off her list of acquaintances and 
routed a whole army of parasites that made 
her unhappy. But mercy ! it is already two 
o’clock, and I have not even ordered the sup- 
per or made any preparations, and Fve got 
to dress myself aloneP* with a shudder. 

A three-volume novel might be written 
about the trials and tribulations of Vaness 
on that dreadful day. It would appear that 
all the tradesmen and peddlers in the city 
had conspired to make his life miserable. 
They assailed the house at the front door, at 
the back door. The bell kept ringing as if 
the devil himself were dancing on the wire. 
And every time Vaness answered, he came 
up more dishevelled and furious and profane 
than before, until the butcher and the baker 


14‘2 A Bargain in Souls 

and the candlestick-maker made up their 
minds and told their neighbors that Mrs. 
Vaness was insane; and, by evening, people 
sped timorously by the house, or chose to 
take another street for fear of a sudden out- 
burst of the maniac. 

It was three o’clock before the agony of 
perfecting his toilet had been accomplished. 
And when, heated, furious, and excited, he 
sallied forth to find the caterer, the neighbors 
were satisfied, as they beheld this strange 
figure appear in the street, that the poor lady 
had indeed gone mad, and retreated precipi- 
tately behind their curtains. 

The supper ordered, he returned almost in 
a fainting condition to the house, just in 
time to be worried by the sudden influx of 
seven young ladies, who gave him the head- 
ache by their constant chatter. And they 
looked at each other in an alarmed way at 
the dishevelled appearance of the hostess, 
and the most worldly shook their heads and 
said they were sorry that such a nice woman 
as Mrs. Vaness had taken to drink, and 


Great Tribulations 


113 


expressed strong sympathy for the husband. 
And when the party sat down to supper, it 
was more blue than rosy. Each young lady 
seemed ill at ease, and eyed Vaness askance 
as if he were some dangerous animal. It 
was discovered also that the caterer had sent 
some one else’s dinner, consisting of pig’s 
feet and chocolate eclairs, which did not add 
to the gaiety of the assembly, who had ex- 
pected something delightful, and had dressed 
elaborately for the occasion. 

So the funereal meal was hardly touched, 
and the young ladies soon found various ex- 
cuses to depart after it was over. 

And when the last skirt had fluttered 
through the doorway, Yaness rose fainting 
from the sofa and stormed the buffet, and 
broke open the doors, and drew forth a box 
of cigars and a bottle of Hennessy, and sat 
down amid the ruins of the repast with his 
feet cocked up on a chair in the most unlady- 
like attitude, and smoked and groaned, and 
drank and groaned, and then began all over 
again, occasionally varying the monotony by 


144 


A Bargain in Souls 


cursing Uncle Oliver and the day he made 
that bargain in souls. 

Then like a knell of doom he heard the 
cry in the street : 

“Las’ edition — ‘ Sun ’ — ‘ World’ — ‘News’ — 
‘Owl.’ Las’ edition !” 

Why did a sudden chill strike his heart as 
he rushed to the door, bought a paper, and 
returned to the sofa? 


VI 

IN PERIL 

A moment later, Nita, flushed with her 
rapid walk, hastily entered the room. Vaness 
was stretched out on the sofa, speechless. 

“Why, Arthur, dear, what is the matter 
she murmured, kneeling down by his side, 
alarmed at the apoplectic color of his face 
and heavy breathing. 

“The paper — the paper,” he gasped, shak- 
ing a damp newspaper in front of her face. 
Then he turned toward the wall and 
groaned. 

“What can the matter be Nita asked 
herself, in an agony of alarm. “Something 
dreadful has occurred, I am certain. Is — is 


10 


145 


146 


A Barg:ain in Souls 

mamma dead ? Tell me, tell me,” shaking 
him vigorously by the arm. 

“Worse— much worse,” he moaned, his 
voice sinking almost to a whisper. 

Nita hurried over to the table and poured 
out a glass of wine. Her hand was trembling 
so violently that she spilt most of the con- 
tents over his face when she raised it to his 
lips. He choked and spluttered, but what 
he swallowed seemed to revive him. He sat 
up on the edge of the sofa and glared at her 
wildly. 

“Go away, miserable creature !” he cried. 
“Bury yourself in the woods or some corner 
of the earth where you will be forgotten, and 
let me toil out my miserable days alone,” 
mopping his face and forehead with a scarlet 
handkerchief, while he groaned an accom- 
paniment. Suddenly he started up wild- 
ly. 

“What is it, Arthur?” she asked, implor- 
ingly. 

“What is it? You ask me that question?” 
with a stony glare. “Look at that paper !” 


In Peril 147 

he howled, holding up the copy of “The Even- 
ing Owl.” ‘‘Look at that paper !” 

“I — I see it,” murmured Nita, plaintively. 

“Read it, unhappy creature!” thrusting 
the sheet into her frightened face. “Gaze 
upon the ruin you have wrought 1” sinking 
back on the sofa. “Unlucky was the day 
when you started to revolutionize the press !” 

“Why— why — what’s the matter, Arthur 
dear ? Isn’t it all right ? I’m sure I spent 
all day in that nasty, dirty office, working 
like a galley-slave.” 

“Onhappy creature,” he moaned, “you 
jave ruined me forever 1 Never shall I be 
able to hold up my head among my fellow- 
men again. You have made me the laughing- 
stock of the town.” Then he snatched up 
the paper and said, “Listen ; this must be 
some of your brilliant work; listen : 

“ ‘A few moments before going to press 
we have received information regarding a new 
scandal which implicates some well-known 
people. The principal in this unfortunate 
affair is the editor of a disreputable evening 


148 


A Bargain in Souls 

paper whose symbol is the bird of wisdom, 
but should have been a carrion crow. This 
journalist, who has long disgraced his guild, 
has accumulated a handsome fortune through 
bribery and corruption, and now contem- 
plates flight from this city with his ill-gotten 
gains, to escape the just penalty of his nu- 
merous crimes against law and society. 

“ ‘This alleged journalist resides in a 
handsome house in Thirty-fourth Street, 
between Seventh and Eighth avenues.’ You 
heard that?” howled Vaness — “‘between 
Seventh and Eighth avenues.’ That is this 
house — this house ; and I— I am the unhappy 
individual singled out for attack in my own 
paper !” 

He retreated behind the journal and groan- 
ed loud and long. 

“But that is not all,” starting up with an- 
gry energy. “The v/orst is yet to come. My 
cup is brimmed with more bitterness. I 
must quaff still more gall and wormwood. 
Listen ! 

“ ‘ This vampire, who nas sapped the life- 


In Peril 


149 


blood of his patrons, who has fed like a ghoul 
on the bodies of the unfortunates slain by 
his pen — this assassin of truth and justice, 
with the Janus face, as a final act of villainy 
intends to desert his charming wife, the 
daughter of one of our most respected citi- 
zens. This unfortunate lady, who three 
years ago fell under the spell of this design- 
ing ruffian may at least be^ congratulated 
that she will be freed from the tyranny of 
one who has long ago forfeited all claims as 
a husband. From authentic sources we 
learn that the leading danseuse of a Bowery 
theatre is to accompany the recreant hus- 
band across the border, leaving behind her 
three divorced husbands and six twins. The 
sympathies of the entire public will be with 
the wife of this bravo of the pen, and yet it 
is a merciful relief that she will be freed at 
last from the daily insults of a degraded de- 
bauchee.* 

“Now, what do you think of that?** cried 
Vaness. “What — do — you — think — of that? 
Could anything be plainer? I am the de- 


150 ^ Ba7'gain in Souls 

graded debauchee, and you— you, the cause 
of this awful article, you are the lovely and 
deserted wife. Oh, I shall certainly go 
mad!’’ waving his arms frantically in the 
air. “But the worst of it all is that this ter- 
rible tale appears in my own paper— my own 
paper ! ” sinking, with many moans, a help- 
less heap among the cushions. 

As for Nita, her words entirely failed her. 
She could only sit there holding the copy of 
“ The Evening Owl ” in her trembling hand, 
speechless with dismay, while a large tear 
trickled down her cheek. 

“Why, Arthur, I — I didn’t know anything 
about this — awful article. Indeed I didn’t,” 
very plaintively. 

“Didn’t know' about it 1 ” he groaned. ”Is 
that any excuse ? It was your business to 
keep such things out of the paper. That’s 
what an editor’s for. How can I sue my own 
paper for libel ? Nobody ever heard of such 
a thing. Who was the w'retch that perpetra- 
ted that paragraph ? Tell me ! I shall not 
be able to sleep comfortably to-night until 


Tn Pe7‘il 


151 


he is done away with. Tell me his unholy 
name. ” 

‘T don’t know. I — I didn’t wait until the 
paper came out. The sound of those horrid 
presses clanking in the basement gave me a 
headache.” 

‘‘But whom do you suspect? Whom have 
you spoken with to-day in the office ? ” 

“Well, there was the sporting editor a — a 
very horrid person,” with a shudder of remi- 
niscence, “and the dramatic editor — and — ” 

“But the reporters ? ” 

“Oh, just as I w^as going away a young man 
entered in a great hurry. He said he had 
brought a very interesting story, and so I 
told him to write it up and send it down to 
the composing room.” 

“Was he red-headed, with a long pink 
face ?” 

“Ye— es.” 

“And wore gaiters with plaid tops?” 

“I— I believe he did.” 

"Oh!” groaned Vaness, burying his face 
in his hands. “ It must have been Miggins. 


152 A Barga'm in Souls 

I was going to discharge him to-morrow. He 
must have got wind of the fact, and took 
this opportunity of being revenged. Misera- 
ble woman, you have made me absurd. All 
the papers will be laughing over this to- 
morrow.” 

Nita in vain tried to console him. Her 
tears made no impression on the fire of his 
anger. Suddenly he sat up and took the 
offending sheet again in his hands. 

‘‘I may as well know the worst first as 
last,” he sighed. “Let me see what further 
destruction you have wrought this melan- 
choly day. Why did I ever allow myself to 
be persuaded into making such a bargain ? 
Why, we shall be in jail before the week’s 
out, if things continue at this rate. Ah ! here 
is an editorial paragraph that bears the 
stamp of your genius. I am almost afraid 
to read it, for no doubt some deadly peril for 
us both lurks in every line. Ha ! ha !” with a 
wild laugh. “I thought so. 

“ ‘ We can not find enough censure for the 
Mayor having allowed such a disorderly rah- 


In Peril 


153 


ble to assemble in Union Square last night, 
when the Socialist leader Ivan Ogereff ad- 
dressed the crowd. In no other city would 
such a concourse of ex convicts, outcasts, 
and murderers be permitted to hold a public 
meeting. The revolutionary sentiments ex- 
pressed by the Russian ruffian who presided 
and by his cut-throat companions were of 
the most inflammatory character ; the speak- 
ers urging their bearers to pillage Fifth Ave- 
nue and string up the capitalist from every 
lamp-post. During an attempt on the part 
of the police to maintain order they were 
severely handled as they were not permitted 
to carry arms on this occasion. If such 
meetings as this are to be permitted, 
we demand that the police shall attend 
fully armed, and at the first sign of trouble 
from the rabble they should fire on the 
crowd. 

“ Uf we had our own way, prison bars 
should keep the leaders of the New York So- 
cialists from attending any meetings for some 
time to come ; and as for Ogereff, five minutes 


154 A Bargain in Souls 

in the electric chair would soon cure him of 
his oratory^ ’’ — * 

Vaness threw down the paper, gasped, 
opened his mouth to speak, but no words 
came from his lips. He took a glass of wine 
and seemed revived. 

“Anything worse than that in the paper?” 
he howled. “Anything that will bang me or 
send us both up for life ? If you have, trot 
’em out now while I am composed,” gritting 
his teeth. “Not satisfied with holding your 
own family up to ridicule, and libelling your 
poor, unhappy husband, you must needs 
draw down on his innocent head the ven- 
geance of the populace. We shall both be 
ornamenting the top of an electric light pole 
before the night is over. Miserable unfortu- 
nate, what possessed you to place our lives 
in peril?” 

“I am sure,” sobbed Nita, “I only, ex- 
pressed the highest sentiments,” referring to 
her little book. “‘The press should be a 
sturdy ally in maintaining pure government, 
in disseminating the true doctrine of law 


hi Peril 


155 


and order. Its voice should be always raised 
against the foes of society and the misguided 
fanatics who sow the seeds of discord among 
the people. They should reap what they 
have sown, and those who preach the sword 
should die by the sword. Now you yourself 
have often told me that you wished that all 
the socialists and anarchists were driven out 
of the city.” 

“Well, I may have said so, but I didn’t go 
so far as to express my sentiments on paper 
for all the world to read. Why, if you keep 
on you will plunge the city into a social 
revolution, and we shall be the first to suffer 
How would you like your head, or rather the 
one you now wear, to adorn the top of a long 
pike ? For heads on pikes are quite the rage 
during such times.” 

‘‘Oh !” exclaimed Nita, shuddering at the 
thought, and raising one trembling hand to 
her face. 

“It’s not at all iHilikely. Kevolutions have 
begun from much slighter causes than this. 
I shouldn’t wonder if even at this moment a 


156 A Bargain in Souls 

ragged mob were sacking the office of the 
paper and feeding the staff into the presses. 
Oh, you have distinguished yourself admira- 
bly for one day rising and walking up and 
down the room hurriedly. Then he stopped 
and picked up the offending paper again. 

“But that cannot be all,” severely. “You 
cannot have been satisfied with simply dis- 
gracing us and imperilling our lives. Why, 
where is the account of the Sullivan-Smith 
fight that was to take place this morning ? I 
donT see a line of it — not a word, and we had 
two correspondents on the spot. Where is 
it ?” thumping the paper with his fist. “Show 
it to me.” 

“I — I left it out,” said Nita, almost in a 
wffiisper. 

“Left it out !” he screamed, “left it out ! 
Why ? Why ? It would have sold thousands 
of papers. Every journal will have a page 
about it. A crowd will be waiting in front 
of the bulletin-board to see the news, and 
there won’t be a blessed word. Oh, this is 
too much, toomucli !” falling with a thud into 


In Peril 


157 


an arm-chair. ‘‘Why, wha — at prompted you 
to keep out the only valuable news-story 
that could be procured to-day 
Nita was not ready just then with an an- 
swer ; but having resorted to her little blank- 
book, hei'W'ace cleared and she began to read 
in a composed voice : 

“‘The press should always encourage 
healthful exercise and manly sports, but it 
should strongly condemn, under all circum- 
stances, brutal exhibitions of animal strength, 
such as the prize ring, and degrading per- 
formances in which dogs and roosters are 
slain to please inhuman crowds.* There !** 
triumphantly. 

“Bosh ! That sounds all very well. But 
an editor’s first duty is to build up the 
sale of his paper. He cannot feed a starving 
family on lofty sentiments, or clothe himself 
properly with resounding rhetoric. Here you 
have filled up the space that should have been 
allotted to the fight with a dreary account of 
a game of croquet. Bah !’* 

And he threw the paper down under foot 


158 ^ Bar gam in Souls 

and trampled on it in his rage. ‘‘We shall 
he ruined before the week is out; I know it, 
I feel it,” he moaned. 

“But really, Arthur, I did the best I could,” 
Nita interposed, wiping her tearful eyes. 
“ Wait until I have reorgaifized the 
office.” 

“Unhappy creatures ! they must be disor- 
ganized enough already. What a wretched 
lot is theirs ! You say you have done the 
best you could ? Do you think that the read- 
ers of ‘The Owl’ are to he fed on milk and 
mush? They have tasted blood; and their 
thirst is aroused. Can a tiger be satisfied 
with a diet of tea and toast? They ask for 
gore, and you smother them with a spring 
bonnet. They call for crime, and you gag 
them with the latest thing in corsets. They 
ask for battle, murder, and sudden death, 
and you stifle them with tea-parties and 
games of croquet. Oh, Uncle Oliver, unlucky 
was the day when we made this bargain in 
souls ! Hunger and ruin will soon be our 
portion ; we shall soon need bodies to hold 


In Peril 159 

our souls,” wringing his hands. “Ah ! what 
was that ?” 

A murmuring sound of many voices and 
the tramp of feet were heard from the street 
Vaness rushed to the window. He peeped 
out through the curtains with a vague feeling 
of apprehension. 

“What is it?” asked Nita, anxiously. 

Just then a paving-stone crashed through 
the panes and rolled noisily at her feet. 

“That’s the first reply from your friends 
the socialists,” he said calmly. “The street 
is full of people, dirty and howling. As you 
are the author of that offensive paragraph, 
you had better go out on the balcony and 
address the crowd. Your eloquence may 
soothe them, hut they may kill you first.” 

“Oh, really, I couldn’t. I shouldn’t know 
what to say,” she answered from her retreat 
under the sofa, where she had scrambled 
hastily. 

“You — you go. You are used to such 
things. They will listen to you. You are a 


man,' 


160 A Bargain in Souls 

“Ob ! no, Fm not ; Fm a woman. They 
don’t know me from Adam. It’s you they 
want. Hear ’em !” and a loud roar sounded 
from the street, “Vaness ! Vaness ! Come out !” 

The occupants of the drawing-room trem- 
bled. It was a moment of dread peril for 
them both. 

“Don’t you think we had better try to es- 
scape through the back way?” asked Nita. 
“We might climb over the wall and get into 
a side-street, and take refuge at mother’s. 
If they find that no one appears, they may 
get tired and go away.” 

“Yes, after smashing everything in the 
house,” said Vaness, looking around the 
charming room with a groan. “Well,” after 
a moment’s ponsideration, “I don’t suppose 
anything can be gained by stopping here, 
and I can summon the police while we are 
escaping; that is, granting that we can 
escape, for they are furious, and may have 
blocked us in. Take a last look at the bric- 
a-brac, for when you see this house again it 
will be a smoking ruin.” 


In Peril 


161 


'‘Oh, don’t say such horrible things!” 
moaned his companion, looking around with 
a distracted air. “Don’t you think we ought 
to try and save something ?” 

“Well, the piano is the most valuable thing 
in the parlor. You might carry that off,” 
with grim humor. 

A roar from without warned them that the 
mob was getting impatient. 

"Come,” he said, taking Nita’s trembling 
hand in his. "Our lives are the most precious 
things we can save just now.” 

They left the room noiselessly. It was 
getting dark, so with difficulty they made 
their way down into the basement. 

They wanted to tell the cook that they 
were going out to make a call, but they could 
not find her ; she had disappeared. 

"Oh, I forgot I turned her out,” murmured 
Vaness to himself. “Could it be possible 
that she had gone over to the enemy?” 

Just as they were deserting the house, 
another thought occurred to him, and he 
turned resolutely back. 


11 


162 


A Bargain in Souls 


“What is it now?” asked Nita, anxiously. 

“I had forgotten all about Uncle Oli- 
ver.” 

“Oh, let him alone. They will not harm 
him. If we delay any longer it may be too 
late. Come, Arthur,” dragging him away. 

“What, would you leave him to his fate, 
after bringing down this ruffian horde about 
his ears? For shame ! We must save him.” 

“And be lost ourselves ?” 

“If he is killed,” said Vaness, “the secret 
of our souls will die with him. We shall 
never be able to break this awful bargain and 
be ourselves again. What a fearful future 
will be ours !” 

“Oil !” cried Nita, with a shudder, “I never 
thought of that. You are right ; he must be 
saved !” and in another moment they were 
bounding up the stairs towards Uncle Oliver’s 
room with hearts beating high with excite- 
ment. 

“We ought to get his life heavily insured,” 
said thoughtful Nita, when they gained 
the landing. “Then, if anything happened. 


In Peril 163 

we should have some money with which to 
console ourselves.” 

‘^Could I buy back my intellectual head 
and graceful form with money?” he asked 
bitterly ; and she said no more. 

They found the sage clad in his embroid- 
ered dressing-gown, working in the midst of 
a cloud of smoke that rose from several re- 
torts and crucibles. There was something 
uncanny about his appearance as he loomed 
up before their eyes like a genie on a cloud. 
His saffron-colored hands, like the claws of 
a strange bird, fluttered here and there 
through the smoke, sprinkling powders and 
essences on the flames. 

At his elbow Guzko stood, as silent as the 
brazen Buddha in the corner, ready to wait 
upon his master. Uncle Oliver turned angri- 
ly upon his visitors as they entered. 

‘‘Why do you come bursting into my room 
at such a critical moment?” he demanded 
angrily. “I was just in the midst of a deli- 
cate experiment.” 

“But, uncle, the house is besieged by an 


164 A Bargain in Souls 

infuriated mob. We have come to save your 
life. Hasten or it will be too late,” said Nita. 

“I never saw you so much interested in my 
welfare before,” the old man chuckled. 
“Why this sudden display of affection ?” and 
he laughed loudly, with a queer cackling 
noise. 

“Don’t delay,” pleaded Nita, earnestly. 
“Just hear them !” as a roar sounded from 
below. “They are thirsting for blood.” 

“But where do you propose to go ?” he 
asked, peeping cautiously out on the scene 
in the street. 

“We thought of taking refuge with dear 
mamma until the trouble was over. Do 
hurry, for your own sake as well as ours” — 
in an agony of impatience. 

“What ? Leave this comfortable room and 
take up my quarters with Mrs. Sowerby? 
Let me die right here if that is the alterna- 
tive,” sinking into a chair. “Better face an 
army of socialists than that one woman.” 

“It’s very cruel of you to speak so of dear 
mamma,” said Nita, with a sob. 


In Peril 


165 


“Oil, you need not stay on my account,” 
said the old man with a chuckle, as he pre- 
pared to return to his work. “I don’t want 
to detain you for a moment.” 

‘‘But we — we won’t go without you.” 

“We — we want to save you,” they quavered. 

“Ha ! ha ! now I know the reason for your 
disinterested kindness, my dear children. 
You are afraid I may die, and the secret 
with me. Well, I hear them already at the 
door, so escape is too late. We can die here 
together ; and though your souls have been on 
earth divided, they will pass unchanged to 
the spirit-world.” 

Far from comforting the unfortunate pair, 
this speech only added to their alarm. 

“Unhappy man,” cried Vaness, “we must 
leave you to your fate. It is too soon to 
give up all hope. We will try to escape. 
Come;” and he led his companion away. 
They passed quickly down the stairs, feeling 
their way in the dark to the basement, just 
as the front door burst open, and the sound 
of heavy boots was heard in the hall. Vaness 


166 ^ Bai'gaiit in Sotils 

and liis trembling companion had reached 
the door leading into the tiny garden none 
too soon. Then, as he laid his hand on the 
knob to turn it, a shiver of dismay ran like 
a chill through his heart. It was locked ! 

“Oh, Arthur, what is to be done?” wept 
Nita, clinging to his arm. 

“Nothing,” he muttered, hoarsely. “That 
door is of iron, with a spring lock. It can- 
not be forced. We are trapped.” 

Just at that moment the sound of heavy 
boots was heard drawing nearer their retreat. 

“Vaness ! Vaness !” roared several voices. 

He started at the sound. “We can barri- 
cade the door leading to the hall,” he muttered 
hastily. “Come, help me as quietly as 
you can. They may think we have escaped.” 

They piled every available piece of furni- 
ture against the door. The last piece had 
just been set against the panels, when the 
tumult was heard only a few feet away. 

“Vaness! Vaness?” shouted a hoarse 
voice. A hand tried the knob for several 
moments. Then there was a sound of mut- 


In Peril 


167 


tered growling and the shuffling of many 
boots on the stairs. The marauders made 
no further attempt to break in, but seemed 
to be beating a retreat. 

The fugitives breathed more freely. Vaness 
had found a piece of candle and lit it. Then 
he helped Nita out of the wash-basket of 
clean clothes, where she had been hiding. 

“I don’t think they will come back here,” 
he said. “They will be satisfied with pillag- 
ing the house. There is nothing here worth 
taking.” 

“Oh, Arthur,” said Nita, very plaintively, 
“can you ever forgive me for having brought 
all this trouble upon you ?” crouching down 
at his side. 

“My dear, there is nothing to forgive. Let 
us forget what is past, and think only of the 
common danger that threatens us. We may 
never escape alive. Who knows but the at- 
tack on our house was the beginning of a 
revolution, and that even now the city is 
being pillaged by the mob ? At least, if we 


1G8 A Bargain in Souls 

perish, this odious bargain in souls will be 
broken,’’ putting his arm tenderly around his 
trembling companion. 

“Who could have imagined, twenty-four 
hours ago, that we should now be in danger 
of our lives?” murmured Nita. “Ah, it is 
a just visitation of Providence for having 
been discontented with our lot, for having 
tried to reverse the plans of our Creator.” 

She subsided in a huddled heap on the 
floor, and only an occasional sigh reminded 
Vaness that he had a companion. Having, 
to his joy, discovered a cigarette, he was 
calmly smoking, and thinking very hard 
over their unlucky predicament. 

Finally, after a few moments’ silence, he 
felt a hand plucking timidly at his sleeve. 

“Arthur.” 

“Well ?” 

“You won’t feel angry with me ?” 

“What for?” 

“I— I am awfully hungry,” plaintively. 

“Already?” with a growl. “Why we may 
be blockaded here for a week. May have to 


In Peril 


169 


eat each other. This is only the beginning.” 

“But won’t there be anything to eat to- 
morrow 

“Dunno!” 

“I might look around,” said Nita, timidly; 
“there must be some scraps in the closet.” 

“Plenty of rats, I dare say.” 

“Ough !” with a start. 

“Well, you’ll be very glad to fall back on 
them before the week’s out.” 

“Never ! I will die first.” 

“Oh, you’ll get to like them exceedingly. 
When young they are said to be quite as 
appetizing as rabbits. Well, we may as well 
amuse ourselves by looking after the pro- 
visions — that is provided there are any.” 

He took up the candle and made a tour 
of the small room, stopping to rummage 
every closet and corner ; while Nita gave a 
tiny scream every now and then at an imagi- 
nary rat. 

“There’s plenty of water, anyway,” said 
Vaness, turning on a pigot. 


170 


A Bargaht in Souls 


“And pepper and salt,’* cried Nita, draw- 
ing two large boxes out of the closet. 

“I had no idea our larder was generally 
so empty.” 

“You forget that you have had seven hungry 
girls to supper, and did not order anything 
for to-morrow. When I managed the house 
it was very different.” 

Vaness thought best to change the conver- 
sation. 

“What a pity our cat died! We might 
have trained her to catch sparrows for us. 
I have read of such things in books. Anyway, 
we might eat her as a last resort. If I ever 
get out of this predicament I shall keep a 
regular menagerie, just to fall back on in 
case of necessity.” 

“Here are half-a-dozen bottles of Wor- 
cestershire sauce,” said Nita, dragging some . 
bottles out of the table-drawer. 

“That’s good. We shall be able to make 
some very nice mixed drinks with those. Ah, 
what’s this ?” stumbling over something soft. 
“By Jove, it’s a fur rug 1” 


In Peril 


171 


“Well, what good is that ? We can’t eat it.” 

“Why not ? They did in the siege of Paris. 
You scrape off all the hair and then boil the 
skin for a couple of days, and there you 
have a bowl of nice clear soup.” 

“I couldn’t be tempted to touch it,” shiv- 
ered Nita. 

“Well, considering you used to board on 
West Eleventh Street, I should think you 
would be able to eat it with relish. There’s 
no use looking any further ; we have scoured 
every corner and cupboard.” 

Just then Nita gave a joyous cry. 

“Well, what is it? Have you found a 
Perigord pie or Westphalian ham ?” 

“No; a turnip. Will you have some of 
it?” 

“Thanks ; you are more hungry than I am.” 

Nita sat down and began munching the 
turnip. Never had she tasted anything so 
good. 

They talked for a long time over their 
troubles, and at last nature triumphed over 
their fears, and they fell asleep in each 


172 A Ba7'gain in Souls 

other’s arms like the babes in the woods. 

Daylight was filtering through a crack in 
the shutters when Vaness awoke and looked 
around him, a little alarmed at his surround- 
ings ; but the events of the night before soon 
recurred to him. 

Nita was still sleeping peacefully on the 
rug he had spread out for her. He bad no 
idea what time of the day it was, but from 
the sun, which he could see by peeping 
through the shutter, he judged it to be around 
eight or nine o’clock. He performed his 
ablutions at the sink, and then sat down to 
think wdiat they should do for breakfast. 

He knew that there was generally a cold 
lunch laid out on the top of the dining-room 
buffet, and the thought that it was so near, 
and yet impossible to reach, was maddening. 
The house was very still now. Could he not 
open the door gently, crawl upstairs, and 
reconnoitre while Nita slept on? It would 
be dangerous, but he might be able to seize 
a pie or something on the way, if there was 
no one in the dining-room. 


In Peril 


173 


He opened the door carefully and listened. 
Not a sound. Slowly the stairs were ascend- 
ed, and he was in front of the dining-room 
door, which stood ajar. With a heart beat- 
ing high with excitement, he raised himself 
on tiptoes and peeped in. Not a soul was 
visible. But what caused his eyes to glisten 
was the sight of a tempting breakfast laid 
out on the table — a pile of brown toast, an 
omelette, and a steaming pot of coffee. The 
maddening incense of the fragrant Mocha 
drifted towards him, and he sniffed the per- 
fume in a state of ecstasy. He was tempted 
to rush in at any peril, grab the omelette and 
coffee, and run away to his retreat, to enjoy 
it with Nita. Then reason came to his aid. 
It would be better, after all, to be discreet. 
Perhaps some of those cut-throats were idl- 
ing in the front parlor ; they would shut off 
his retreat, and perhaps send him where 
breakfasts are not. He resolved on a piece 
of strategy. Eight behind him on the hat- 
rack was a long alpenstock, the souvenir of 
a tramp trip he had taken through Switzer- 


174 


A Bargain in Souls 


land. It was surmounted by a single chamois- 
horn, which made an admirable hook. In a 
moment it was in his hands. Listening to 
hear if anyone was stirring, he poked it in 
the door and began fishing for the coffee-pot. 
His hand was trembling so violently that it 
was some time before he could hook the 
handle of the pot with the horn. Then he 
raised it slowly — slowly, to draw it towards 
him, his face beaming with hope and ex- 
pectancy. 

Just as it was in reach of his hand, a voice 
cried out from the parlor : 

“Hello ! where is my breakfast going?’’ 

The coffee-pot fell with a crash on the 
floor. Vaness paused in terror, unable to 
move hand or foot. When he looked up, he 
was facing, not a ragged, revolutionist, but 
a stylish young man in brown tweeds, who was 
eying him with a smile on his handsome face. 

“Follansby?” he cried. “What are you 
doing here ?” 

“And what are you doing stealing my 
breakfast ?” 


In Peril 175 

“But the mob,” gasped Vaness, unable to 
understand the situation. 

“Oh, that crowd disappeared last night 
quite early. You see, I was coming around 
to invite Vaness to dinner at the club. I 
saw the mob in the street, and summoned 
the police. It didn’t take ten minutes to 
scatter them. The front door happened to be 
open, so I walked in with a couple of police- 
men and took possession. We stayed here 
ail night, to protect the place in case you 
should return.” 

Vaness almost fainted in his arms, much 
to that young man’s surprise. He had al- 
ways considered his friend’s wife an unap- 
proachable woman. 

“Take care ; Mr. Vaness may see us,” he 
murmured, in a discreet wdiisper. And as if 
in answer to his words, Nita’s frightened 
eyes could be seen glaring through the door- 
way on the strange scene. “Come in,” called 
Follansby, cheerily. “Now that you are both 
here, let me ask you to breakfast with me ; 
that is, unless you have already had some — ” 


176 


A Bargain in Souls 


Nita waited to hear no more. The sight 
of that well-spread table was enough. Some- 
thing — she had not the vaguest idea what — 
had happened, but she was too hungry to 
question. The breakfast was enough to 
think about just then. 

As for Follansby, he felt relieved at the 
thought that he had not been seen with Mrs. 
Vaness in his arms. The greatest possible 
good-nature reigned among the party as they 
sat down to the table. Husband and wife 
had never enjoyed a meal so heartily in their 
lives. It was necessary for the host to send 
out again to the restaurant to supply his 
hungry guests. 

‘T couldn’t help thinking,” he said, “when 
I took up my quarters here and found nothing 
to eat, that the family would have a hard 
time in case of a siege.” 

“Yes,” said Vaness, with his mouth full. 
“Do you know, that thought occurred to us 
too !” 


Til 

A NEW QUIXOTE 

Although Nita had won her coveted free- 
dom, she was far from happy. In spite of 
the wholesome meals she daily prepared for 
the patrons of “The Owl,” there were many 
vacant chairs at the feast, and even those 
who still surrounded the board had begun to 
murmur at the fare provided and showed 
symptoms of stampeding to the caterer across 
the way, who served up sensations fiery hot 
with a curry of redundant rhetoric. 

The subscription list was rapidly falling 
off, in spite of her well meant efforts to keep 
her clientele, and grumbling by letter deluged 
the office every morning. 

177 


12 


178 A Bargain in Souls 

When not employed at the desk, she sallied 
forth on long rambles in search of adventure 
like a Knight of old, to redress the wrongs 
of the weaker sex, should an opportunity 
offer. The result was not always satisfactory, 
for the giants she tried to conquer often 
turned out to be only windmills, and her 
chivalrous efforts met frequently with de- 
feat; but still she was satisfied that the time 
would come when she might prove a champion 
of the weak and oppressed. 

Meanwhile, until a really stirring advent- 
ure turned up, she was forced to content 
herself with small courtesies towards the 
oppressed sex. She road frequently in horse 
cars in order to be able to give up her seat 
to tired working women (who did not thank 
her), thus disgracing the male brutes who 
were absorbed in the contents of their papers. 
She was always ready to assist tired looking 
women with their arms full of bundles, and 
once, having become separated in a crowd 
from an old lady whose parrot she had 
insisted on carrying, she was hauled off to 


A New Quixote 


179 


the nearest police station where it took all her 
eloquence to convince the Sergeant that she 
was not a sneak thief but only a journalist. 
Whereupon the old lady remarked that there 
wasn’t much difference, and the parrot swore 
at her. 

But Nita had read in books of chivalry, 
that Knights who went out into the world to 
redress wrongs must expect to meet with 
ingratitude and even defeat ; the conscious- 
ness of having tried to do what was right 
should be enough satisfaction. 

Her ardor in searching for opportunities 
to aid weak women continued unabated, for 
on every hand she saw fresh evidences of 
man’s tyranny and new forms of oppression 
of the white slaves of society. 

One day, an opportunity to be heroic arose. 
While passing through a quiet street, a 
sudden alarm of fire sounded. She ran in 
the direction of the smoke, her heart beating 
high with excitement. Already the doorways 
near the scene of disaster were thronged with 
people. Arriving before a house over which 


180 A Bargain in Souls 

a cloud of smoke hovered she rushed in and 
bounded up the stairs. She burst into the 
first room on the second floor, where a lady 
was reading a novel in bed, not at all dis- 
turbed by the presence of such terrible peril. 

Nita had often read in romances that some 
women, when confronted with danger, grew 
paralyzed wdth fear, stupefied with despair, 
unable to move or even speak. 

The lightly clothed young woman on the 
bed had evidently resigned herself to a mis- 
erable death, for she was reading out loud 
to herself. Undoubtedly her mind had be- 
come unsettled by the deadly peril that sur- 
rounded her, for she mumbled — 

“And they laid the untutored child of 
nature in a sunny corner of the village 
church-yard, where Marmaduke often came 
to shower repentant tears on his lost love's 
grave. Thus — " 

“Eouse yourself,” cried Nita, shaking the 
poor creature vigorously and tearing away 
about half a yard of Spanish lace from the 
robe de nuit. 


181 


A New Quixote 

‘‘Rouse yourself,” she shouted. “In a 
moment, escape may be impossible. The 
flames are at your door.” 

“Eh! what’s that?” remarked the young 
woman, looking at her sleepily. Then see- 
ing that her visitor was a man she gave a 
shriek and disappeared under the bed 
clothes. 

There was no time to be lost. Perhaps 
even now the staircase might be on fire. In 
spite of the lady’s continued howls, Nita 
dragged her out of bed, rolled her up in the 
coverlet and staggered with her burden down 
stairs. Whether it w^as the smoke or the 
burden of bearing such a stout young person 
down the flight that made Nita’s brain reel, 
she could not tell hut a sense of faintness 
came over her before she had accomplished 
half her journey and then she slipped and 
roiled the rest of the way, in a whirl of 
muslin and Hamburg edging. In a moment 
she had regained her feet, satisfied that she 
had saved a life and that even now the crowd 
without were praying over the unconscious 


182 A Bargain in Souls 

form she had wrested from the devouring 
flames. 

But there were more unfortunates above — 
they must be saved too. She would have 
been glad to have discovered a bed-ridden 
old lady of about ninety, some one very old 
and very light whom she could easily carry. 
Then she would stagger towards the window 
sill just as they do in the popular novels and 
stand in view of the crowd framed in fire, 
while a loud cheer of thanksgiving rose from 
the assembled multitude. Then some brave 
heart would place a ladder against the build- 
ing and she would make her way slowly 
down the blazing rungs while— “God bless 
you” sounded in her ears from the grateful 
hearts below. Ah ! Arthur would have reason 
to regret that he had ever accused her of 
having been faint hearted, he should learn 
to his discomfiture of what bravery she was 
capable. Already one life was saved— one 
soul plucked like a brand from the burning ; 
this glorious day should not close until many 
more were weeping grateful tears at her feet. 


A New Quixote 


183 


All these thoughts encouraged her and 
strengthened her as she rushed up the stairs 
again on her life-saving mission— her whole 
heart aglow with glorious exultation. But 
unfortunately for her hopes every room she 
entered seemed to be empty. The dear old 
bed-ridden lady, muttering prayers, must 
have escaped, or she did not live there. And 
Nitawas puzzled because all the burning 
houses she had ever read about contained at 
least one helpless old woman, and sometimes 
a blind father. She rather felt that she was 
not being squarely treated. 

As she returned from the top floor after a 
fruitless search and with a large bump over 
the left eye, where she had collided with a 
piece of furniture, she caught sight of a 
flying figure in white in the dim lit hall below. 

‘‘Ah!” cried Nita, “Some poor helpless 
woman crazed by the sight of the flames,” 
and she bounded to the rescue. 

“Let me save you, poor darling,” she said 
soothingly, clasping the bundle of white in 
her arms. 


184 A Bargain in Souls 

“But I don’t want to be saved,” howled 
the unfortunate. “I’ve just been saved.” 

“Calm yourself, dear,” clasping the strug- 
gling form firmly and dragging it screaming 
towards the stairs, “A few moments and all 
will be well.” 

But the miserable creature continued to 
struggle and howl until the hallway had 
been reached, and Nita, in a very dismantled 
condition, stood panting with the excitement 
of the journey. Already she could feel her- 
self clasped in the arms of a grateful father 
while the poor mother wept at her feet. 

“There he is — there he is,” cried a number 
of voices. 

The friends w^ere peering in the doorway 
to grasp her hand to tell her in a few broken 
words how deeply they felt their obligations 
for that signal act of bravery. 

“What in thunder are you doing with my 
wife T howled a harsh voice, and Nita sud- 
denly felt a large and brawny hand grasp 
her shoulder. 


A New Quixote 


185 


It was not exactly the welcome she had 
expected, but doubtless the unhappy husband 
was excited. 

“Let me restore her to your arms,” she 
said, lifting the limp, white burden she had 
dragged down that long flight of stairs. “She 
was crazed by the sight of the flames ; she 
was rushing to destruction when I arrived 
in time to save her,” and Nita drew herself 
up modestly just like a hero in one of The 
Duchess's novels. 

“Are you the infernal fool that dragged 
me out of bed and pushed me down those 
stairs about ten minutes ago ?” angrily de- 
manded the lady in white who had returned 
to her senses. 

Nita looked at the flushed face, somewhat 
disconcerted. Yes, it was certainly the un- 
fortunate being whom she had found calmly 
reading in bed when she first set out on her 
mission of salvation. This complicated mat- 
ters considerably. Nita had never read in 
any novel of the hero saving a beautiful 
young woman twice from the same fire, but 


186 A Bargain in Souls 

then it was all the more dramatic and her 
courage was none the less commendable. 

“My poor lady, you were crazed with the 
danger of the moment— stupefied with des- 
pair.“ 

“Stupefied humbug,” retorted that ungrate- 
ful creature. “A pretty state of things when 
a strange man is allowed to burst into a 
lady’s room and drag her out of bed and 
push her down-stairs.” 

“I’ve a good mind to give you in charge,” 
howled the husband, shaking a formidable 
fist in close proximity to Nita’s nose. 

“And just when I was in the midst of a 
most exciting chapter of * The Haunted 
Honeymoon,” whimpered the lady in white. 

Nita was reeling with astonishment. 

“But the fire,” she gasped. “I saved your 
wife from the flames. A moment more and 
she would have been reduced to cinders.” 

“Humbug ! there ain’t no fire,” he howled. 

“No fire!” 

“No! It’s back on the next street,” 

Nita had made a mistake in the house. 


187 


A New Quixote 

Crushed in spirit she turned away and 
slunk through the crowd ; and for many days 
after that she did not sally forth on her 
chivalrous errands of mercy. The most 
terrible thing about the whole affair was 
that it got into the papers and Nita was so 
graphically pictured by the reporters that, 
though no names were mentioned, those who 
knew the editor of “The Owl” personally 
had no trouble in deciding who the mysteri- 
ous person was who had blundered into a 
peaceful house in a mistaken mission of 
mercy. 

As for Arthur Vaness he or rather she was 
never tired of bringing up the painful sub- 
ject. For when she started away to the 
office of a morning he would gravely suggest 
that she take with her a fire escape in case 
an opportunity to visit a fire should occur on 
the way down town; and he often asked 
anxiously if she had received a medal yet 
for her bravery in saving the same woman 
twice on Thirty-Fourth street. 


188 ^ Bargain in Souls 

These taunts were sufficient to stir up 
Nita’s sensitive soul to such a pitch of des- 
peration that she would have rushed pell- 
mell into any burning building that offered 
to retrieve her reputation. Now more ar- 
dently than ever did she pray for a chance 
to show her valor. _ 

After many weary days of waiting the 
longed-for opportunity at last arrived. 

Nita had been dining at The Bounders’ 
Club, had played cards all the evening, and 
now, with a brain somewhat confused, she 
had wandered down to the river’s edge to 
clear her head of the tobacco fumes that she 
had been breathing all the evening. 

It was verging on midnight and a light 
mist hung over the waters and draped the 
shipping in soft gray folds. She sat down 
on a mooring-post and looked dreamily down 
into the black waters that laved the spiles of 
the dock with a soothing murmur. 

She thought sadly of the life that she had 
led only a month ago — that quiet existence 
where there were few cares to worry her sensi- 


189 


A New Quixote 

tive nature, far removed from the noise of the 
world, where its jarring sounds only reached 
her ears like the wave beats of a far-off sea. 

The friction of the crowds worried and ir- 
ritated her; she was fast losing all the ami- 
able qualities in her nature and becoming 
fretful and peevish. She had made a mis- 
take and yet was too proud to acknowledge 
it. The liberty for which she had sighed 
had proved a delusive snare. The privilege 
of going to a club where cards and tobacco 
and drinking employed the attention of its 
members was no recompense for the loss of 
the quiet existence from which the brutal 
sides of life were discreetly hidden. Her 
new knowledge of the world as viewed from a 
man’s standpoint only disgusted her; she 
would have gladly given years of her life to 
have been as ignorant of its mysteries as of 
old. She was tired already of battling in 
the stream and sighed again for the placid 
shallows. As she sat there with black care 
for company, the sound of a light footstep 
arrested her attention. 


190 A Bargain in Souls 

The moon had struggled through the ragged 
clouds, and bathed the pier in silvery light. 
Close to the water’s edge and peering down 
into the black waters stood a woman. From 
time to time she turned her face in the 
direction of the street and started affrighted- 
ly as a carriage dashed along the highway. 

Nita could see that she was deadly pale 
even in that uncertain light, and that she was 
handsomely dressed in some dark silk even- 
ing costume that displayed her finely mould- 
ed arms and white neck. 

What could her purpose be in standing on 
that lonely pier at midnight. What purpose 
but to find death in the waters at her feet ? 

This was the question that Nita asked her- 
self and answered. Here was an opportunity 
to save a woman weary of the world who 
sought in death the rest that had been denied 
her in life. 

It should be Nita’s task not only to save 
this despairing soul but to heal her wounded 
heart and show her life was still worth the 


191 


A New Quixote 

living. That the world was still as full of 
love and light as when the older poets sang 
its praise. 

The woman on the pier had turned with 
bowed head toward the river that, at that 
moment, seemed sprinkled with golden stars, 
Nita rose and glided noiselessly toward her 
but suddenly, as the moonlight faded, the 
figure disappeared. 

Had she taken the final plunge ? YetNitafelt 
sure the splash would have reached her ears, 
as she stood on the edge of the pier searching 
the waters below with straining eyes. 

She was not aware that a carriage had 
stopped in the street, not far from where she 
stood, until a harsh voice roused her. 

“A moment if you please.’’ 

She turned and confronted a portly gentle- 
man in a dress suit whose sharp eyes glit- 
tered in the moonlight as they surveyed her 
searchingly. His fat hands toyed with a 
huge gold watch chain and his large, brutal 
mouth, half hidden by a stubby mustache, 
snapped out the words like a threat. 


192 


A Bargain in Souls 

“ What is it ? ” said Nita calmly. Already 
she felt a decided aversion for this pompous- 
looking vulgarian. 

“I am searching,” he puffed, “for a woman 
whom I believe has hidden herself some- 
where hereabout. She wears a black silk 
dress without sleeves and, I believe, carries 
a lace mantilla. Have you seen any such 
person eying Nita severely. 

“Might I ask your reason for knowing?” 
she asked, hoping to gain time to think. 

“No, you might not. And you will do 
well, young man, if you know what you are 
about, to give me any information that will 
lead to this person’s discovery. Have you 
seen her— yes or no, for my time is valuable ?” 

“Yes,” replied Nita who had made up her 
mind that right or wrong she would give this 
disagreeable person a long chase. 

“Ah !” said the portly gentleman rubbing 
his hands. 

“The person you describe was here only 
a few moments ago. I was smoking on the 


193 


A New Quixote 

pier and I am sure she did not see me. 
After a few moments, she got into a carriage 
at the corner and was driven rapidly away 
in the direction of down-town.*’ Was it 
imagination or did Nita really hear a sigh 
of relief from the shadows. 

‘‘Ah, that’s good,” cried the other; “May 
I ?” putting his hand in his pocket as if to 
draw out some money ; but seeing the ex- 
pression on Nita’s face he withdrew his hand. 

“Well, thank you, anyway,” he growled, 
and started off at a rapid gait for his carriage. 

“Keep to the river front,” he yelled to the 
driver, “and hustle down-town.” The door 
slammed and the coupe rolled rapidly away 
into the darkness. 

“You may come out,” said Nita, after the 
sound of the wheels had died away. 

The woman who had been concealed be* 
hind some bales of cotton near-by, glided 
out into the moonlight. She was a handsome 
creature with wonderful black eyes that now 
shone with a restless fire. 

IS 


194 ^ Bargain in Souls 

"Oh, how can I thank you,” she murmured, 
covering Nita’s hand with kisses. “You have 
saved me from a terrible predicament.” 

“I am not sure that I have done right,” 
said Nita, trying to calm her. “Tell me 
your trouble in your own way.” 

"I will, and then you shall judge for your- 
self,” said the stranger in a choking voice. 
"That man who was here, whom you spoke 
to a moment ago, is my husband. To-night 
there was a ball given at our home, on Madi- 
son Avenue ; it was necessary that I should 
be there, and yet while I was forced to dance 
and appear merry, the fate of one I loved — 
my brother — was in danger, and I alone 
could save him — warn him that he must fly.” 

She paused, overcome with emotion, and 
her sobs were long and painful. Nita did 
her best to comfort the poor woman who 
finally dried her eyes and continued. 

"My brother had done wrong, he was 
implicated in the transactions of some swind- 
ling stock-company. I overheard the chief of 
police, who happened to be one of the guests. 


195 


A New Quixote 

tell a friend that a warrant for George’s 
arrest had been placed in the hands of a 
detective. My husband caught the remark 
as well as I, and, as he hated my poor brother, 
he must have made up his mind that I should 
not have an opportunity to warn him. For 
an hour afterwards, he followed me about 
keeping his eyes on my face. 

was in despair, for every moment was 
precious. How could I contrive to escape ? 
At last, my husband was called away for a 
moment into the hall by one of the servants. 
I pretended to become faint, too ill to dance 
any longer, and begged to be excused. I did 
not wait to regain my room, but snatching up 
a shawl in the dressing room I rushed out 
into the night. A few minutes later, he must 
have discovered my absence and followed me 
in a cab ; for one moment, we were only a 
block apart, but owing to the darkness I 
eluded him and rushed down to the pier 
where I thought I might hide until I saw 
which way his carriage was going. But for 
you, I should have been lost. Had he found 


196 


A Bargain in Souls 

me, it would have been an excuse to put me 
away in some private asylum, for he is tired 
of me as I am of him,’’ bursting into tears. 

Nita’s warm little heart bled for this 
unfortunate woman. 

What a happy freak of fortune had led 
her down to this pier on this particular night ! 
She would be the means of saving an erring 
brother from prison and a poor wife from 
her husband’s tyranny. What a grand night’s 
work ! 

“Come,” she said, gently putting her arm 
around her trembling companion. “At any 
moment your husband may discover his mis- 
take and be on our track. Come with me 
and we shall see if two women cannot outwit 
a single man.” The stranger looked at Nita 
in astonishment when “two women” was 
mentioned, but said nothing. 

They were fortunate enough to find a car- 
riage only a block away into which Nita 
helped the stranger, who was almost fainting 
with the fatigue and excitement of the last 
half houi. 


A New Quixote 


197 


They had scarcely taken their seats, when 
the sound of wheels was heard, and looking 
out Nita saw that they had been observed and 
that the pursuit had already begun in earnest. 
She whispered some quick directions to the 
driver and the carriage tore along the quay. 

“What is the matter” asked her companion 
who had relapsed into a semi-unconscious 
state in the corner. 

“Nothing” said Nita carelessly. 

But the stranger was not satisfied, and 
thrust her head out of the window. 

“He has discovered his mistake, ‘‘she cried 
in a fever of excitement,” and is following 
us. I caught sight of his face as the carriage 
rolled under an electric light.” She took a 
handful of money out of her pocket and thrust 
it into the driver’s hands. 

“It is a matter of life and death,” she cried, 
“drive as fast as you can.” 

He whipped up his horse and for some 
moments only the sound of rolling wheels 
rattling over the uneven pavement disturbed 
the stillness of tha night. 


198 A Bargain in Souls 

Nita and her companion sat listening with 
bated breath to hear if the carriage in per- 
suit was drawing nearer. At last, she could 
bear the suspense no longer and peeped out 
of the window. The cab that was following 
them was slowly gaining ground, it was now 
only a block away. . 

“Oh, what is to be done,” moaned the 
stranger when she heard this intelligence. “I 
would rather fling myself into the river than 
fall into his hands again. You saved me once. 
Save me again,” imploringly. 

“At least I will try,” said Nita, overcome 
with pity for the helpless woman beside her. 
“Let me think.” 

She sat for a moment in deep thought while 
those dreadful wheels seemed to be rolling 
nearer. Then she rose and whispered some 
directions to the driver who turned the next 
corner sharply and drove away in a Wester- 
ly direction across the city. 

“Have you thought of a plan to escape,” 
asked her companion anxiously. 


199 


A New Quixote 

“Yes ; but I am not sure it will succeed. In 
a few blocks, the driver will turn the corner ; 
there we must alight and find shelter in a 
doorway while the carriage goes on. I am in 
hopes that your husband will not discover 
his mistake but will continue the pursuit 
which will give us auT opportunity for escape 
and find your brother.’^ 

“How good you are/’ murmured the un- 
known gratefully. “Ah if I had only had 
the fortune to have known a man like you, I 
should not be the miserable creature that 
I am,” with a faint sob. 

Nita consoled her as best she could, and 
felt amply repaid for all the trouble she had 
gone through by this poor woman’s gratitude. 
Her own gloomy thoughts vanished before 
this greater grief; at least her new life with 
all its trials had not proved utterly worthless. 

The corner was turned and Nita, supporting 
her companion, found refuge in a dark alley 
leading into a dirty court while the cab rolled 
rapidly away. The ruse worked like a 
charm. They had the satisfaction of watch- 


200 


A Bargain in Souls 

ing their empty carriage still pursued by the 
husband whose angry face could be seen in 
the window as he urged on his driver with 
oaths and threats. 

Their hiding place however could be only 
temporary. 

The husband’s carriage would soon over- 
take the one they had deserted; he would 
discover the mistake and, understanding the 
trick that had been played on him, return to 
the chase with fresh energy and a new feel- 
ing of rage. 

Nita looked searchingly at the houses on 
the other side of the street in hopes that a 
new hiding place might occur to her, but the 
black windows offered no solution to the pro- 
blem she was revolving in her mind. 

She recognized by many familiar signs in 
the dim light that she was in her own neigh- 
borhood, that she was only a block from her 
own house. 

She might have offered the stranger a 
temporary refuge there, but unfortunately 
she had mislaid her night key, and to rouse 


A New Quixote 


201 


up the house at that hour with a strange 
woman was not to be thought of. Some pry- 
ing neighbor would be on the watch and draw 
his, or her, own evil conclusions; besides, 
Arthur might refuse to let them in. But time 
was passing, the husband might even now 
have discovered his mistake, something 
must be done and at once. 

Near the corner by which they stood, a 
brilliantly lit building with many colored 
lights over its portals attracted her eye. 
There was a large illuminated sign hung 
above the entrance where she read in blue 
letters : 

GRAND BALL MASQUE. 

At once her plan was made and she com- 
municated it in a low voice to her companion. 
They could go to the ball, hire some disguise, 
and when the dancers dispersed, escape with 
the crowd. It would be impossible for the 
husband to discover their identity even if it 
occurred to him to search the hall. 

Taking her companion’s trembling arm in 
hers they set out. Nita was well provided 


202 A Bai'gain in Souls 

with money, and, after paying the entrance 
fee, she hired a blue domino for the unknown 
and a white folly costume for herself ; having 
assumed their masks, they boldly entered the 
hall, confident that escape was now assured. 

A quadrille was j'ust being formed and 
though neither felt much in the mood for 
dancing they thought it best to join one of 
the sets in order to divert suspicion, for 
there were scarcely fifty people present. 

The music struck up and they were soon 
in the whirl of the dance, which diverted 
them from their own disagreeable thoughts. 

Nita found herself, during the pauses, 
surveying with a languorous interest the 
various couples that made up her own set. 
There was one lady directly vis-a-vis, a 
slender creature robed in the white garments 
of a Eoman vestal who particularly attracted 
her attention. Somewhere, she felt instinct- 
ively, she had seen that slight figure and 
those glistening curls before. 

A white mask trimmed with lace closely 
hid every feature of the unknown face, but 


A New Quixote 


203 


a pair of flashing eyes could be seen twink- 
ling through the crevices. Of course it was 
very absurd in Nita to fancy that she knew 
her neighbor, but she still continued to study 
the lady in white through all the changes of 
the dance. 

Once they were very close to each other 
and in changing partners she clasped the 
stranger’s hand in hers. 

She regarded the slender fingers and deli- 
cate wrist a moment as they swung around 
into their places. Then started with a stifled 
cry. She had recognized her own engage- 
ment ring on the stranger’s hand. There 
was no doubt about it. Her vis-a-vis was 
Arthur ! What if he should recognize her 
and in the company of a strange woman? 
That would give him a fresh opportunity to 
make fun of her, to scoff at her chivalrous 
attempts to protect her oppressed sex. 

But fortunately the lady in white seemed 
to be too particularly engrossed in her com- 
panion to pay much attention to the other 
couples. This gentleman who wore a dress 


204 A Bargain in Souls 

suit and a simple black mask Nita was quite 
certain was Jack Follansby, in fact the lady 
in white addressed him more than once as 
‘‘Jack.” 

The dance was drawing to a close and Nita 
was congratulating herself that her incognito 
had been successfully preserved, when a new 
danger presented itself. 

As the music died away and the dancers 
were returning to their places, the floor-mana- 
ger stepped upon the stage where the 
musicians were gathered, and clapped his 
hands for silence. Every attention was 
drawn towards him as he opened his lips to 
speak. 

“Ladies and gentleman,” he began, “I 
have been requested by a detective from 
Police Headquarters to ask you to unmask. 
A great diamond theft was committed only 
a few hours ago during the progress of a ball 
on Fifth Avenue. The criminals suspected 
are a man and a woman, both young. They 
were pursued within a few doors of this hall 
and it is thought that they may have sought 


205 


A New Quixote 

a hiding place here. The treasurer and cos- 
tumer are almost certain that two such per- 
sons secured tickets and dominoes, only a 
few moments ago. Therefore in the cause 
of justice, I must ask you that wear dominoes 
to lay them aside for a moment, and every- 
one, the masks. It will only be for a little 
while and you will greatly facilitate the dis- 
covery of the real criminals.” 

He bowedandretired. The guestsof the eve- 
ning looked at each other interrogatively as if 
to say ‘‘Are you the thief?” but without delay 
they began to remove their masks and such 
part of their costumes as could be laid aside. 

Nita stood as if nailed to the spot. The 
danger of the situation did not strike her so 
forcibly at that moment as the thought that 
she had been deceived, that the unfortunate 
wife whom she had sought to save from the 
clutches of a cruel husband, had turned out 
to be only a vulgar thief. She was ready to 
cry from sheer vexation. She looked around 
in vain for her companion — the unknown- 
had disappeared ! 


206 A Bargain in Souls 

Her eyes met instead those of the detective 
who was standing only a few paces away 
surveying the scene with his sharp eyes, and 
the glance he cast at Nita seemed full of 
suspicion and malevolence^ 

It was no time for hesitation for the others 
had already taken off their masks. The 
detective was still regarding her curiously ; 
if she hoped to escape it must be done at 
once. 

Every second she expected to feel a hand 
upon her shoulder and be compelled to 
identify herself. But what explanation could 
suffice under such circumstances. She had 
shown herself to be this woman’s accomplice 
in aiding her to escape. Not even the fact 
that she was a journalist could have saved 
her from gaol. In fancy she saw herself 
arraigned before the judge and sentenced to a 
long term of imprisonment, while reporters 
from her own paper were standing near at 
hand to take down notes of the case. 

She remained there, stupefied by this 
confusion of thoughts not knowing which way 


207 


A New Quixote 

to turn to escape. The door was guarded 
and the detective with the implacable eyes 
was striding toward her with deliberate steps 
one hand in his pocket as if he were getting 
a revolver ready in case of any resistance. 

Yet still she did not move. 

Just as a large and hairy hand was reached 
out to grasp her arm one of the dancers in a 
folly’s dress capered between them and 
struck at Nita playfully with the bladder he 
carried in his hand. 

It seemed to rouse her from her stupor to 
the danger of her situation. She scanned 
the hall rapidly and then noticed to the 
right a small garden filled with imitation 
tropical plants and tin palm trees, lit with 
colored electric lights. She ran with the 
hopelessness of despair into this garden not 
knowing whether there was any exit or not 
through which she might hope to escape. 

The place seemed deserted, but as she 
threaded her way rapidly among the plants 
she came upon a woman in white seated 
under a palm tree eating an ice. She looked 


208 


A Bargain in Souls 

up a moment and Nita caught a glimpse of 
the face. It was Arthur again ! 

The sight only added to her fever of mind. 
What if they should bear her away to gaol 
before his very eyes ! What a disgrace for 
them both ! 

In the midst of these terrifying thoughts, 
as she ran around the garden like a squirrel 
in a cage, she suddenly perceived a narrow 
flight of stairs that must have been used in 
summer by the workmen when the sliding 
roof was thrown open. 

Nita darted up the steps without a mom- 
ent’s thought, only eager to get away from 
the vicinity of the lady in white who was 
still calmly consuming her ice under the 
tree. 

Nita had almost reached the scuttle and 
was lifting it, when she heard the sound of 
many voices in the garden below. 

“Did a man pass by you within the last 
few minutes?” roared the detective, evi- 
dently addressing the only occupant of the 
place. 


209 


A New Quixote 

“Yes,’’ was the reply. “A very suspicious 
looking character ran up those stairs only a 
moment ago.” 

Arthur had unconsciously betrayed her ! 

She crawled through the scuttle just as the 
sound of heavy feet clattered on the stairs 
below. A faint light in the east showed her 
that it was nearly daybreak as she paused 
for a moment to take breath. 

Beyond her, in an uneven line, stretched the 
roofs and chimneys of a long block of houses. 
Surely in these acres of chimney-pots and 
towering gables she could find some place of 
temporary refuge. 

A battering sound beneath her showed 
that the pursuers would soon force open the 
scuttle. She turned and made her way as 
rapidly as she could over the broken tiles 
and rusty tin, stumbling and falling over 
bricks and bits of mortar and keeping well 
out of sight behind the tall chimneys. 

It seemed years since she had begun tra- 
velling along in this aimless fashion, when a 
cry from behind warned her that her pursuers 


14 


210 ^ Bai'gam in Souls 

had forced open the scuttle and were scouring 
the roof in search of her. Once as she turned 
the corner of a chimney she caught sight of 
the detective roaring out orders to the men 
who accompanied him. They divided their 
forces so as to hem her in— no escape seemed 
possible ! 

She was almost tempted to try and climb 
down one of the chimneys, but as a faint 
smoke could he seen hovering over many, 
the possibility of dropping into a fire or 
landing on top of somebody’s breakfast 
caused her to resign the thought. 

Matters were getting more and more des- 
perate. In five minutes at the most she 
would be in the hands of the enemy. 

At last she found herself on the top of a 
flat roof, protected from her hunters by tall 
chimneys and gables on either hand. To 
her joy, she saw that the scuttle was partly 
raised for ventilation. In a moment she 
had swung it open, crawled in and bolted it 
behind her. And none too soon, for as the 
bolt clicked a voice she recognized was heard. 


A New Quixote 


211 


“I am sure I saw him on the roof a mom- 
ent ago. Take a good search around the 
chimneys and any hole that looks like a 
hiding place.” 

A hand rattled the door above her head 
but finding it would not open the owner went 
away, as she could tell by his footsteps. 

Nita sat very still on the uncomfortable 
ladder, resting herself after that terrible 
flight over the roof. She was exhausted and 
ready to faint with fatigue. 

If the redoubtable detective had appeared 
at that moment, she would have been tempt- 
ed to give in without a struggle. 

In a very confused state of mind and half 
asleep, she made her way slowly down the 
ladder into the hall. She seemed to be still 
haunted with the consciousness that she was 
being pursued and every shadow caused her 
to start in affright. The very air seemed 
peopled with enemies who stretched out their 
long arms to seize her as she crept silently 
along. 


212 A Bargain in Souls 

She had reached the second floor still 
p-ursued by these imaginary foes, when she 
perceived a door standing ajar. Without 
pausing to examine if the room was occupied, 
she glided into it, locking the door securely 
behind her. It was scarcely light enough to 
see distinctly, but the bed was empty and 
hastily tearing off that hateful fool’s dress 
she flung herself upon it, and a moment later 
was sound asleep. 

No dream filled her slumbers; she lay 
there as if insensible, dead. How long, she 
never knew% but she was roused by a wild 
thumping on the door. 

She started in affright. Had they dis- 
covered even this retreat ? Was she never 
to find peace ? She sank back on the bed 
with a groan of despair. Well, let them 
break the door in and seize her, she had no 
heart to try and escape any longer. 

The thumping on the door continued; 
finally a voice roared out : 

“Say, are you going to get up?” 

That voice ! That voice ! It was Arthur’s ! 


213 


A New Quixote 

“Is that you, my dear,” she asked. 

“Yes. It’s nine o’clock.” 

She rolled on the bed and laughed from 
sheer delight. She was in her own house, 
in her own room, she could have screamed 
with joy. The pursuit, the strange woman, 
it had all been a dream, a terrible dream. 
Then her eyes fell on the tattered fool’s dress 
that lay on the floor and she knew that it 
had all been true, that every moment of 
agony in that experience had been real. 
But she was safe now ; no one could find her 
within the four walls of her own home. She 
rose, and picking up the hateful garb she had 
worn at the ball, she locked it safely away 
in the closet and began to dress for breakfast. 

Half an hour later, a distinguished-look- 
ing young man lounged sleepily into the 
pretty dining room and sat down at the 
dainty breakfast table where his wife, in a 
pearl-colored peignoir was poring over the 
morning paper. 

“Great excitement,” said the lady, raising 
her face for a morning kiss ; “Mrs. Brighton 


214 


A Bargain hi Souls 


CasLmore gave a ball last night and all her 
diamonds were stolen. The culprits were 
chased all across the city but managed to 
escape by disguising themselves and joining 
a Ball Masque at the ‘Parisian Gardens* on 
the next block. But they finally got the 
woman. Here, do you want to read about 
it ?’* tossing over the paper. 

The young man hid his blushing face 
behind the sugar bowl and hastily glanced 
over the article. 

“Do you think they stand any chance of 
catching the man asked the wife biting a 
piece of toast. 

“No, not the slightest,** said the husband. 


VIII 

TWO TETE-A-TETES 

All this time the Socialists had not for- 
gotten Nita’s editorial ; and after an illustrat- 
ed description of the attack appeared, in 
which they were ridiculed and laughed at 
while Yaness was lionized, they were with 
difficulty persuaded from burning his house 
down. 

They contented themselves, however, the 
following day, by besieging the press-room 
of “The Owl,^’ and that afternoon it appeared 
very late, printed on wrapping-paper, as the 
basement had been barricaded by the mob. 

Instead of discomfiting the editor by these 
measures, and forcing him into subjection, 

215 


216 A Bargain in Souls 

they were the means of further advertising 
the paper, and copies that had been printed 
on the wrappers were eagerly bought at a 
premium as curiosities by the crowd. 

The offended parties then changed their 
tactics and began to harass the poor editor 
in his home. Misfortunes were of daily 
occurrence in that once peaceful household, 
and it was evident that the cook, who sym- 
pathized with the Socialists, had become 
their ally. It was decidedly embarrassing 
at a dinner-party to have a large turkey 
explode with a startling report, just as the 
guests were comfortably seated; and what 
adequate apology could be made to a visitor 
when a dynamite cartridge went off under the 
sofa, and he found himself reluctantly soar- 
ing towards the ceiling in a shower of 
splinters and bits of blue plush? 

The Vaness family were soon afraid to sit 
down to a meal for fear of its being poisoned, 
and they had already lost two poodle-dogs 
and a tortoise-shell cat whom they had 


Two Tete-a-tetes 


217 


induced to sample various suspicious-looking 
viands in which certain death seemed to lurk. 

But though Nita was the ostensible editor 
of “The Owl,” Vaness had too good a nose 
for news not to turn these daily persecutions 
to account ; and the readers of the paper were 
daily informed of every fresh outrage, written 
up in his most sensational style. The anti-so- 
cialists at once rallied to his assistance, and 
in spite of Nita’s mismanagement, the paper 
slowly began to increase in circulation. 

Her sublime disregard for news had dis- 
couraged the old editors, who finally sent in 
their resignations and retired from the field 
in disgust. Their places were promptly 
filled with women, and the office was once 
more established on an amicable footing. 

This change, which she had long looked 
forward to, created many extra expenses. 
For while the young ladies on the staff were 
content with small wages, she was reluctantly 
compelled to employ a small army of men 
to act as their escorts when there was work 
to be done after dark. 


218 


A Bargain in Souls 


While ilie general character of the paper 
had changed, it was astonishing what a num- 
ber of scandals were unearthed by these 
petticoat-reporters. Each had her grievance 
against some other woman, and took the first 
opportunity to be revenged in print. In 
fact, one day, when Nita was away, the 
paper came out entirely filled up with personal 
attacks ; and the following day the office was 
invaded by an army of victims, who fought 
a pitched battle with the young ladies on 
the paper, and were not satisfied until they 
had completely routed them and borne off 
pounds of switches and at least a bucketful 
of hair-pins as trophies of their triumph. 

But Nita felt that her labors had not been 
entirely in vain. Now, when she came down 
to the office of a morning, her senses were 
no longer offended by smoking men in their 
coat-sleeves, keeping up a running fire at 
cuspidors, and punctuating their remarks 
with sulphurous exclamations. Instead, she 
confronted a line of rosy-cheeked girls with 
bewitching aprons of many pockets, chewing 


Two Tete-a-tetes 


219 


gum or sipping tea as they went about their 
various duties, singing softly to themselves. 

The files of old papers that had lined the 
walls were discarded because they were dirty 
to handle, and had been replaced by en- 
gravings in neat frames, mottoes in worsted, 
and plaques painted by the young ladies 
themselves. About twenty office-cats snoozed 
on the piles of rejected manuscripts, and as 
many cages of canary-birds depended from 
the ceiling. 

Even the great presses were ornamented 
with pink ribbons, and the printer’s devil 
(the most charming little devil you ever saw) 
was actually clean, each member of the staff 
scrubbing her at least once a day. 

Though the office and press-room appeared 
in this gala attire, Nita’s troubles had not 
ended by any means. 

She was perpetually being called upon to 
settle quarrels among her fair allies; for 
discussions and resignations were of daily 
frequency. For instance, the dramatic 
editor— a sweet young thing of nineteen — 


220 A Bai'gaiii in Souls 

having been jilted in love by the leading- 
man of the Fourth Avenue Theatre, took 
every opportunity to make fun of his acting 
in the columns of the paper. Other members 
of the staff, who had been won over by his 
classic features and Hyperion curls, at 
once arrayed themselves against the critic, 
and finally, after a severe attack on their 
idol, the young lady was unceremoniously 
hustled out of the office, minus a bang and 
many hair-pins. 

Mrs. Brighton Cashmore, the millionaire’s 
wife, who paid the paper a thousand dollars 
a year on condition that her costumes should 
be conspicuously described on every social 
occasion, at once cancelled her contract when 
she found herself written up after the 
Patriarchs’ Ball as “a bilious-looking woman 
with a face like a hawk, who made an absurd 
display of her scrawny neck and hired 
jewelry.” 

Nita herself was to blame for the latter 
expensive mistake, because she had in- 
structed her young ladies that in gathering 


Two Tete-a- teles 


221 


news they Avere always to tell the truth; and 
they acted. accordingly, even when a member 
of the Four Hundred was involved. 

When Clarence Delaney ran for mayor 
against Patsey Flaherty of the Fourth Ward 
he won the race, not by “a neck,” as the 
sporting men would say, but by a mustache. 
This delightful facial adornment carried the 
office by storm. He caught every trusting 
female heart in the place on its points. 
From that time they were with him to a 
man — that is, a woman. Of course if he 
kissed the political editor behind the ice- 
cooler, that was nobody’s business : it was 
part of the campaign-fund. Anyway, the 
young ladies of the staff were so won over 
by the charms of that mustache that they 
worried their brothers and husbands and 
lovers to vote and work for him at the polls, 
and Delaney went through with flying colors. 

It was only necessary to glance over “The 
Owl,” in its present condition to see what a 
great change had been wrought by the new 
administration. The news-columns were no 


222 


A Bargain in Souls 


longer coruscated with crimes, and prize- 
fights were never fought over again in its 
pages. Every paragraph was pervaded with 
peace. Articles on “How to Keep a Hus- 
band at Home,” contributed by a divorcee 
Oil the staff, ran with great success .through 
several weeks. “What to Do With Our Girls” 
also found many appreciative readers, 
though it evoked some malicious replies 
from rival newspapers. 

Yet, in spite of all Nita’s well-meant efforts, 
the public seemed to be very unenthusiastic 
over the change in tone the paper had taken, 
and seemed to feel very little interest in this 
organ of homelife. The paper pleased 
women ; but their husbands wouldn’t buy it ; 
and Nita had long ago antagonized the 
political leaders in the city because they 
chewed tobacco and swore in the office before 
her pure-minded young ladies. 

As the subscription-list began to fall off 
at an alarming rate, Nita finally decided 
that a little mild news would not hurt the 
paper much, and might possibly do it some 


Two Tetc-a-tetes 


223 


good. But here a new difficulty arose. 
The sweet young things could not be per- 
suaded by tears or threats to interview 
criminals, or enter bar-rooms or other resorts 
where news was supposed to Inrk ; and so 
Nita had to let them return to their essays 
and Greek lexicons, while she tried to think 
out some other plan of raising the circulation. 

The rival journals caused Nita many tears, 
for hers was a sensitive soul, and their 
gibes wounded her sorely. They were never 
tired of poking fun at the paper. She was 
nicknamed “The Petticoat Editor,” and her 
staff “the editorial harem.” One paper even 
insinuated that the police would do well to 
look into the affairs of such an office, as 
they had seen the chief with the dramatic 
editor in his arms, pla inly in view of the street. 

Poor Nita had forgotten for a moment her 
physical change, and, at the time, was com- 
forting the poor little woman with all the 
resources at her command. 

• So it was that her reputation suffered. 
Once, while trying to soothe a young wife 


224 A Bargain in Souls 

who had conic to her for advice in a divorce 
suit, the irate husband surprised them to- 
gether in the private office and severely 
pummelled the editor, who was unable to 
explain the harmless character of his caresses. 

Altogether, Nita’s lot was not a happy 
one, for the stockholders of the paper had 
begun to murmur against her management 
of their interests, and even insinuated that 
a padded cell was the best place for her to 
seclude herself in. 

As for Vaness, he roamed about the house 
like an uneasy spirit, longing to be again 
in the hustling atmosphere of the city, dy- 
ing of inanition in his dainty prison. To 
add to his misery, he had been forced to 
entertain a maiden aunt from the country 
during the past fortnight : a wealthy though 
terrible person with a false front, who 
frowned on his frivolity, and dragged him 
off at all hours of the day on shopping ex- 
peditions, and once, finding him smoking a 
cigarette, promptly cut the whole family 
out of her will. 


Txvo 7 ete-a-tetes 


225 


That smoke cost at least fifty thousand 
dollars ; and the awful aunt took great pains 
to let the other relatives know what a fast 
young woman Arthur’s wife had become— a 
suspicion she had always entertained from 
the very first, she said. 

Now that the enemies Nita had created by 
her ill advised eloquence had ceased hostili- 
ties, Vaness decided to give a small party, 
to make up for his aunt’s disastrous visit. 

At least two hundred invitations were 
sent out,- and Vaness had hoped that at least 
half of that number would respond ; but, by 
ten o’clock, only twenty men and about half 
a dozen women had made their appearance. 
Not even the elegant brocaded costume that 
the hostess wore for the first time on this 
occasion was a consolation for the failure 
of the entertainment. The sight of the 
melancholy gathering was a severe dis- 
appointment, for the Vanesses had been 
very popular with a certain set and their 
invitations eagerly sought for. 


15 


226 A Bargain m Souls 

Vaness was not destined to remain long 
in ignorance as to the cause of this derelic- 
tion on the part of their friends. Passing 
the smoking-room on the way to complete 
arrangements for supper, two men were 
overheard talking. It was wrong, of course, 
to listen, but they spoke so loudly that 
Vaness could not help hearing. 

“What a relief to get out of that parlor !” 
said one, with a yawn. “I never was so 
bored in all my life. I am so glad I didn^t 
bring my wife along.” 

“So am I. In fact I shouldn’t have 
allowed her, for they do tell some terrible 
stories about Vaness and his wife of late.” 

“Yes ; I suppose that is the reason why so 
few women are present. They all sent ex- 
cuses, except a few who were indifferent 
about their characters.” 

“But Mrs. Vaness used to be such a charm- 
ing, affable little w'oman, I can hardly be- 
lieve 

“Yes, I know all that ; but I have seen 
her smoking on the balcony with my own 


Tivo Tete-a-tetes 


227 


eyes where anybody could see her ; and our 
cook, who left here only last week, says she 
swears like a trooper.” 

“I know Vaness has greatly changed,” 
said the other, thoughtfully. “I suppose 
having such a vicious wife has driven him 
out of his senses. He seems to have lost all 
his manliness of character, and they do 
talk scandalously about the manner in which 
that office is run, filled as it is with young 
women. It can’t be entirely proper.” 

“Well, no; that stands to reason,” with a 
laugh. 

They continued their uncomplimentary 
remarks, but Vaness had heard quite enough, 
and he glided noiselessly away to the dining- 
room with a flushed face and a beating heart. 

Was it possible that the fair name of the 
family was in danger? that they had become 
objects of suspicion in the eyes of their 
neighbors ? regarded as disreputable charac- 
ters, not worthy of association with their 
wives? Vaness groaned in spirit; he had 
no idea matters had reached such a terrible 


228 


A Bai'gaiti in Souls 


climax. Bitterly did he curse the day when 
Uncle Oliver and his petrified cats had ever 
found lodgment within those peaceful walls. 
That dreadful bargain had brought them 
endless misery, and the future was dark 
before them. He felt as if he would take 
great pleasure in wringing Uncle Oliver’s 
neck if he had not been the guardian of their 
precious secret. 

Vaness saw that the supper-table was 
properly arranged, and with a heavy heart 
returned to the melancholy guests in the 
parlor, who already began to show signs of 
uneasiness, and looked terribly bored. 

“Ah, there you are !” cried JackFollansby, 
as the hostess appeared, with a melancholy 
expression on her face. have been look- 
ing all around the place for you. Come, I 
want to have a good long talk with you ; it is so 
many months since I have had an opportuni- 
ty,” leading the lady in rose towards an 
embrasure in the window, where they were 
half-hidden from the guests in the parlor. 


Two Tete-a-tetes 


229 


“Do you know,” he said, with a nervous 
laugh, “I have fancied that you have been 
trying to avoid me for the past six weeks ? 
Anyway, you have changed decidedly in your 
manner, and w^e used to be such very good 
friends.” 

“Yes, I feel the change myself,” said Van- 
ess, with a long-drawn sigh. 

“It has worried me exceedingly,” Follansby 
replied, edging nearer. “You remember 
what delightful tete-a-tetes we used to have 
together in this very window while Arthur 
was down-town — when you wore that be- 
witching tea-gown of blue silk with its 
cascade of lace, and you sang to me and 
brought me tea in the most delightful Sevres 
cup ?” 

“Did I?” asked his companion with a wild 
stare. 

“Ah, you have forgotten so soon!” said 
Follansby, sadly, taking the fair white hand 
in his and stroking it caressingly. “Why, I 
have cherished still a souvenir of one occa- 
sion when you allowed me to keep one of your 


230 


A Bargain in Souls 


gloves. Here it is now/’ taking one from 
his pocket. “See, I have carried it ever 
since next to my heart.” 

“Let me have it,” exclaimed the lady in 
pink, almost snatching it out of his hand. 

“Why, what a dreadful passion you are 
in !”he cried, teasingly, yet somewhat startled 
at the angry expression in his companion’s 
eyes. “I can hardly believe you are the 
same little woman who sang to me that 
night, when we sat here in the moonlight, 
one of those delightful Spanish love-songs 
that seemed to be so suited to the occasion. 
Have you forgotten that too ?” 

“I — I remember very well,” said the lady 
in pink, in a hollow voice. 

“Yes ; and one of your arms was bare and 
I stooped and kissed it, and you were not 
angry a bit — were you ?” 

If the light had not been so dim he might 
have seen that his companion was eying him 
with a stony glare. 

“Ah, you have been very cruel of late,” 
sighed Jack; “and Arthur is away so much. 


Two Tete-a~tetes 


23i 


surely we could arrange to meet here fre- 
quently. I could console you for his 
absence/’ drawing nearer and taking the other 
hand in his. “Tell me, Nita,” he murmured, 
“when can I see you again, in this place, alone 

“Don’t, don’t,” murmured his companion. 
“Let me go; I must return to my guests. 
Our absence will be noted.” 

He freed her reluctantly. 

“But the day ? Fix a time,” he murmured. 

“I will write to you,” in a choking voice ; 
and she was gone. 

“So,” said Vaness, when the hall was 
reached, “Nita found a consoler during my 
absence, and one whom I least expected— 
Jack Follansby. Anyway, my eyes have 
been opened to his perfidy ; I shall know 
whom to trust if I ever become my old self 
again. As for you, madam,” shaking a 
jewelled fist in the direction of the drkwing- 
room, “won’t I have it out with you with a 
wet towel when we go to bed !” and the lady 
in pink was forced to resort to the punch- 
bowl in the corner to suppress her emotions. 


232 A Bargain in Souls 

Nita, all oblivious to the scene that had 
just been enacted in the bow-window, was 
entertaining Miss Olcott in a corner of the 
library. The latter wore a peculiar costume 
of white satin and gold, her yellow hair, ris- 
ing above the white points of the broad collar 
surrounding her slender throat, lent her the 
appearance of a huge sunflower. 

She seemed to be more interested in her 
companion than in the ice at her elbow. In 
fact she was regarding Nita with such a 
languishing expression that it was rather 
uncomfortable. 

Nita even stammered out uneasily, — 

“Why — why do you look at me that way. 
Miss Olcott?” 

“Does not the sunflower alwaye turn her 
face to the sun ?” she asked, flashing a most 
killing glance at her interlocutor. 

“Y— es, I believe she does, though I don’t 
understand much of botany.” Then to her- 
self, “Why, I believe this young person has 
indirectly proposed that I shall kiss her. I 


Two Tete-a-tetes 


233 


will see if Arthur has had anything to do 
with bringing about this situation.” 

Miss Olcott sighed when she found he was 
not going to avail himself of the opportunity, 
and began nervously drumming on the arm 
of her chair with her white fingers. 

“How changed you are during the past 
month !” she said, finally. “I can hardly 
believe you are the same person.” 

“Indeed ! and why not ?” asked Nita a little 
brusquely. 

^Well, I used to see you very frequently, 
but now you seem rather to avoid me ; and 
we used to have such lovely times together !” 

“Did we?” abruptly. 

“Why, don’t you remember?” 

“Oh, yes. I beg you pardon ; I am getting 
so absent-minded.” 

“Ah, it is so easy for a man to forget,” said 
Miss Olcott, with a sigh. “Better for us poor 
women if our memories were as short.” 

“Now, I wonder what particular occasion 
she is alluding to?” Nita asked herself. 
“Evidently Arthur is mixed up in this. I 


234 


A Bargain i7i Souls 

must try and draw her out.” Then turning 
to her companion she said : “Ah, you mean 
those evenings — ” 

“Yes; when we used to dine at Torretti’s, 
in that funny little room that overlooked 
the square. I remember at the time you 
were very absent-minded, as you are now. 
I suppose everything had not gone just right 
at home. I could read as much in your 
face. Ah ! these frivolous young wives are 
a sore trial to men of your brains and 
intellect !” 

“You are entirely mistaken,” said Nita, 
rather savagely. “Mrs. Vaness is a woman 
of great intelligence, and with a knowledge 
of life much beyond her years.” 

“Bravely spoken !” said Miss Olcott, with 
a laugh. “It is only right for a husband to 
stick up for his wife ; but we know,” tapping 
her companion playfully with her fan. “We 
know, don’t we ?” 

“How I should like to scratch her face !” 
said Nita to herself. “I wonder what she is 
insinuating by ‘We know’?” 


Two Tete-a-tetes 235 

'‘By the way,” said Miss Olcott, after 
another pause, “I am not so sure that you 
do not owe me a very abject apology.” 

“What for ?” 

“Do you remember the eighth of May, six 
weeks ago ?” 

Did Nita remember it? What a question 
to ask ! 8he wished in her heart that she 
might forget it, for it was on the evening of 
that day that she had made that terrible 
bargain in souls. 

“Oh, I remember it perfectly well,” thought- 
fully. “What of it?” 

“Only this, 0 man of uncertain memory: 
you met me that afternoon on Fifth avenue, 
and arranged to drive me out to High Bridge 
to dinner the next day. Now, what have you 
to say for yourself ? Ought I to forgive you 
after such a disappointment? And ever 
since you have studiously avoided me. I 
have had no chance to get an explanation.” 

“I suppose I was ashamed of myself,” 
stammered Nita, almost ready to burst into 
sobs. “I -I had such important business 


236 A Bargain in Souls 

complications on hand at the time that they 
drove everything else out of my head.” 

“And I waited for you almost in tears, 
heartless creature, for two mortal hours, 
expecting you to come. I had pictured to 
myself another al fresco dinner, such as we 
had enjoyed there once before, when we had 
the table spread under the trees in a lovely 
arcadian grove by the river. And you in- 
sisted on feeding me like a baby, and we 
laughed and chattered like a couple of 
children let loose for a holiday, and were 
just as foolish and happy. And you crowned 
me with roses just as they do in romantic 
poems, and we both sipped champagne out 
of the same glass ; and when we parted, you 
gave me this seal from your watch-chain — 
see, I have kept it ever since,” taking the 
little jewel out of her bosom. 

“I think I had better keep this,” said Nita, 
taking it and putting it away in her pocket. 

“Ah !” sighed Miss Olcott, “those beauti- 
ful days will never come again.” 


Two Tete-a-tetes 


237 


“Not if I can help it,” said poor Nita, to her- 
self, grinding her teeth savagely. “Just leave 
it to me that they will never come again.” 
Controlling herself with an effort, she said 
aloud, “Oh, I dare say we shall see a great 
deal of each other this summer. There 
may be many such pleasant days in store 
for us both.” 

“You don’t know how much that hope 
cheers me,” said Miss Olcott, gushingly. “I 
have now something to look forward to and 
dream about when I am alone.” 

“And so have I,” said Nita to herself, with 
a frown. 

“We can meet very often,” continued Miss 
Olcott, “and no one need be any the wiser. 
Your wife never sees anything; she is too 
much bljnded with love, poor little thing !” 

“Not so blind as you think, you hussy !” 
said Nita, under her teeth. Then, fearing that 
her feelings would betray her,she said hastily, 
“I think we had better go back to the par- 
lor now or we shall be missed. It is just as 
well to be discreet in these matters. 


238 A Bargain in Souls 

“Oh, I know !” with a significant smile, 
tapping her companion playfully with her 
fan. “We understand, don’t we?” 

Nita thrust her hands firmly in her pockets, 
lest the temptation of having that smiling 
face so near hers might prove stronger than 
her self-control. 

“Oh, yes, we understand,” she said, grim- 
ly, as she lifted the portiere for Miss Olcott 
to pass into the room beoynd. “And there 
is some one else whom I shall come to an 
understanding with before this night is 
over” — grimly to herself. 

It was with a sense of relief that she got 
rid of Miss Olcott. Then, no longer able to 
control her tears, and sick at heart, she 
crept up to her room and flinging herself 
on the bed burst into a flood of tears. ^ 

“Ah! it has come at last,” she murmured 
brokenly, after the first paroxysm had passed 
away. “I knew Arthur was concealing 
something from me all along, and now the 
terrible truth is made clear. Oh, how 
miserable I am 1” hiding her burning face 


Two Tete-a-tetes 


239 


among the pillows. ^‘How unhappy I am !” 
and tears again choked her utterance. “To 
think that Alice Olcott, my dearest friend, 
should have plotted to make me unhappy ! 
Hateful thing ! she shall never set her foot 
across the threshold of this house again 
while I am in it. And as for Arthur — I will 
tell him what I have heard. He will attempt 
to defend himself, but I will not listen. I 
will leave him— I will go back to dear mamma 
and try to find in her a solace for my poor 
wounded heart. And when it is possible, I 
will get a separation, and Arthur shall never 
see me again — never !” And then she began 
to cry afresh, and moaned and sobbed as if 
her very heart were breaking. 

How long she lay in this condition she 
did not know; but she had forgotten all 
about the party below, and was only occupied 
in thinking of her own misery. 

At last a thought roused her. She was 
eager to see him, to confront him with the 
details of his guilt, and to tell him that all 
was over between them forever. 


240 ^ Bargain in Souls 

She bathed her eyes hastily in some cold 
water, for they were swollen with crying, 
and then hurried downstairs. The guests 
had departed early, glad to get away from 
such a gloomy entertainment. 

Arthur was walking nervously up and 
down the parlors, and started angrily as she 
entered. 

‘T am glad to see you have been crying,” 
he said, looking at her eyes. “But tears, 
madam, will not wash away the scandal you 
have brought upon your name.” 

“And angry words, sir, cannot stifle the 
voice of your coward conscience, that must 
torture you at this moment for the wrongs 
against your wife in the past.” 

“What do you mean?” he demanded. 

“What do you mean ?” she cried. 

“I can read guilt in her face,” he said to 
himself, eying Nita suspiciously. 

“He is trembling already with shame” — 
to herself as she boldly confronted him. 

“You have deceived me!” they cried, 
almost in the same breath. 


Two Tete-a^tetes 


241 


‘‘Is he mocking me she asked herself. 

“Is it attempted bravery that she echoes 
my words he repeated to himself, with a 
frown. “Let the sight of this bring a blush 
to your cheek, taking a long mousquetaire 
glove out and waiving it triumphantly in 
close proximity to Nita’s nose. “What have 
you to say to this 

“And what have you to say to cried 

the lady in pink, who was decidedly put out 
at the sight of her glove in his hands. 

“Where did you get my seal?” he stam- 
mered. 

“Where did you get my glove?” 

“I found it in possession of your dear 
friend Jack Follonsby — mine no more. It 
seems that you did not dislike him quite so 
much as you pretended in the old days when 
your soul had not changed places with mine. 
He told me much of the past which you 
would not care to have me repeat — of tete- 
a-tetes by moonlight, etc. Ah, it was well for 
you to complain of your household cares while 
you were singing and flirting withFollansby !” 

16 


242 


A Bargain hi Souls 

“And you did well to murmur about your 
hard work on the paper when you were driv- 
ing Miss Olcott all over the country, and 
dining with her alfresco in arcadian groves ! 
At least I have gained something by this 
odious bargain in souls — I have found you 
out.” 

“My discoveries have been quite as num- 
erous as yours, and more unpleasant,” he 
cried. “My conscience is entirely clear of any 
wrong. A dinner under the trees with my wife’s 
intimate friend — what does that matter ?” 

“And I only entertained one of your stupid 
associates because you were not here to take 
him off my hands.” 

“Evidently you did not find the duty as 
unpleasant as you would have me think.” 

“And I am not so silly as to believe that it 
was through a desire to please me that you 
dined and wined with Miss Olcott.” 

And they both began walking angrily up 
and down the room like two caged animals, 
stopping in the middle of the floor to snap 
out retorts. 


Two Tete-a-tetes 


243 


'‘Heartless woman !” 

“Cruel deceiver !” 

“To betray a trusting heart 

“To take advantage of a young wife’s 
innocence !” 

Then she paused in the middle of the 
floor and said : 

“If you had shown any sign of repentance, 
I might forgive you; but no, you are hard- 
ened ; you do not care if I break my heart.” 

“If you showed some regret for your flir- 
tation, I should be merciful ; but you have 
the boldness to brave me out. Very well, I 
have no more to say.” 

“But I have. The law shall set me free.” 

“The sooner the better.” 

“I will return to my mother.” 

“You have my full consent.” 

They paused in the wrangle as a figure 
suddenly appeared in the doorway. It was 
Uncle Oliver’s Indian servant Gusko ; he was 
very much agitated. 

“Sahib,” he stammered, addressing Nita, 
“my Lord is dying.” 


244 


A Bargain in Souls 


Then with a bound he disappeared up the 
stairs again. 

The husband and wife stood for a moment 
regarding each other in stony silence. Sud- 
denly Arthur started and seized Nita by the 
arm; all hostility was forgotten. 

“Did you hear he blurted out ; “Uncle — 
Oliver — is dying V* 

“Dying 1” she murmured, vacantly. 

“Yes,” seizing her arm, “he is dying, and 
the secret of our souls will die with him.” 

Then they broke away from each other 
and rushed madly up the stairs, forgetting 
their quarrel — everything but the new danger 
that threatened their future ! 


IX 

THEY AGREE TO AGREE 

It was quite evident to the husband and 
wife, when they burst into the bed-room, 
that Uncle Oliver’s last hour had come. Two 
candles at the foot of the bed cast a pale 
blue light over his withered features as he 
lay there. 

Over the old wizard’s brow hovered an 
expression of utter abandonment, like that 
of a man whose hours upon this earth are 
counted. The breathing was short and pain- 
ful, and the dry lips and pinched nostrils 
almost gave to the face the aspect of a corpse. 

In the corner the Indian was kneeling be- 
fore a brass idol, pouring incense into a 

245 


246 A Bargain in Souls 

brazier that burned at the base, and mutter- 
ing prayers in an unknown tongue. 

A strange shudder of apprehension ran 
through the visitors as they noted the 
preparations for the last hour. A sudden 
feeling of helpless terror made them tremble. 
He would die, and the secret with him ! 

‘‘Ah, my children,” he said, feebly, “it is 
well that you have come while some life 
still burns in this worn-out body. The light 
of the candle flickers in the socket before the 
breath of the destroyer.” 

“Oh, uncle,” cried Nita, in a flood of tears, 
“you must not die, you shall not.” And she 
knelt down at the foot of the bed and clasped 
one of the claw-like hands firmly, as if to 
hold him back from the unknown abyss. It 
seemed at that moment that the phantom of 
a smile wreathed the withered features of 
the old man as his eyes fell on the kneel- 
ing figure. 

“Allah Achbar ! God is great ! There is 
but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet. 
Alahuma subahana hu ! The will of God be 


247 


They Agree to Agree 

done !” he murmured, piously. And the 
Indian in the corner bowed his head toward 
the east, and struck his forehead three 
times, while he beat his breast despairingly. 

“My children, I am sick unto death. 
Draw near to me, for my breath is faint and 
my voice is feeble. I would have you both 
see that the bequests in my will are properly 
bestowed. The bulk of my property I leave 
to the Society of Historical Eesearch. The 
revenues of my tea-garden on the Hoang-ho 
you will pay in quarterly installments to my 
faithful servant Guzko.” 

Husband and wife heaved a dolorous sigh 
at this point, but it was occasioned probably 
by their melancholy surroundings and the 
presence of death. 

“But I have not forgotten you,” said the 
old man. “I bequeath to you my greatest 
treasures, that I have spent many long years 
in collecting.” 

“Ah !” murmured his nephew and niece. 

“Yes,” he continued. “Now that my last 
hours have come, let all past hostilities be 


248 A. Bargain in Souls 

forgotten. , I leave to you my priceless collec- 
tion of petrified cats from the temples of 
Thebes. 

“Oh !” exclaimed husband and wife, look- 
ing at each other blankly. “Oh!” they re- 
peated. 

“It is only just,” said the sage. “Be not 
overcome with the magnitude of my gift. 
It is the greatest reparation I can take for 
your unselfish kindness toward me these 
two years past.” 

“Oh! thank you, uncle, thank you!” 
stammered Nita, feeling that she ought 
to say something at that juncture. “We shall 
cherish the cats for your sake.” 

“Yes,” blurted out Arthur ; “they will al- 
ways remind us of you, dear uncle.” 

The old man looked up a little severely to 
see if there was any personal allusion in- 
tended in the last remark, but the speaker’s 
face was calm and placid. Arthur, in fact, 
had been thinking very hard for the last few 
moments. He could not reconcile himself 
to the fact that Uncle Oliver was about to 


They Agree to Agree 


249 


die with their secret locked up in his breast. 
Something must be done. They could not 
resign him to the tomb without a desperate 
struggle. He must live — he should live, at 
least long enough to dissolve their odious 
bargain. After that it would not so much 
matter. 

His resolution having been taken, he sud- 
denly cried, gayly : 

“Why do you talk of dying. Uncle ? You 
have many happy years in store for you. 
We will pull you through, and in a few days, 
at the most, you will be as lively as ever.” 

Uncle Oliver looked at him in consterna- 
tion from beneath his bushy eyebrows. 

“Let me die in peace,” he murmured 
“Allah Achbar. God is great. Let no one 
dispute His will. My end has come. So it 
is written in the book of fate.” And he 
turned his face to the wall. 

But they were not going to let him off so 
easily; too much depended on his living. 
What a terrible future they must face if he 
should pass away, and his secret with him ! 


250 A Bargain in Souls 

Nita, too, seemed to grasp her husband’s 
intention. Certainly it would never do to 
resign him as long as a breath remained in 
his body. They would fight with the grim 
destroyer over the body of the victim he 
would claim. 

“Come, uncle,” cried Arthur, “the battle 
is not half over. Be not faint-hearted ; we 
will save you yet. The best doctors in the 
city shall be called to consultation.” 

“I won’t have them !” roared the dying 
man, with astonishing vehemence for one 
who had seemed so exhausted a moment 
ago. “If you bring one in the house, I will 
take poison and hasten matters.” 

“Very well,” said Arthur resignedly ; “then 
we must doctor you ourselves. I know by 
the sound of your voice that you are many 
miles off from death’s door.” 

The invalid groaned and buried his face 
in the pillows. 

“Come, Nita, we must do all we can to 
save our poor uncle. Go and get that copy of 
‘the Household Doctor’ that your mother 


T'hey Agree to Agree 


251 


gave you. It is downstairs on my secretary. 
Courage, uncle ; we will save you as she 
departed hastily on her errand. 

“Go Vay and let me die,” howled Uncle 
Oliver. 

“Not rf your loving relatives can help it,” 
firmly. “We will outwit the gentleman on 
the white horse yet. Have no fear.” 

“Oh !” moaned the sufferer. 

“First,” said Arthur, resolutely, “You want 
more air. The room is charged with smoke.” 

Guzko had now finished his devotions, and 
had resumed his stolid position at the foot 
of the bed. Arthur turned to him and said 
hastily, “Guzko, we are going to save Lord 
Oliver. Will you help me T 

“Sahib, I swear it by the sacred arms of 
Vishnu,” bowing solemnly. 

“Guzko,” cried the old man from the bed, 
“I forbid you. Obey me. I am still your 
master.” 

“If you would save his life, follow my 
instructions, or you will be responsible for 


252 


A Bargain in Souls 

his death,” said Arthur. ‘Tay no heed to 
his words. They are the ravings of delirium.” 

The servant nodded, and, placing his 
forefinger on his forehead, bowed as if he 
understood. 

‘Tut out that smoking stuff !” cried Arthur, 
vigorously. “We must first clear the room of 
this incense ;” and going to the windows he 
raised the curtains and opened them wide 
to the evening breeze. 

“Oh!” howled the invalid, ‘T shall freeze 
to death. Would you kill me before my 
time ? Go away and let me die in peace.” 

“Why, you are reviving already,” said 
Arthur. “That is a good sign. Let me feel 
your pulse,” rushing to the bed and taking 
the old man^s wrist in his hand, much against 
the other’s wishes. 

“Ah, I thought so,” looking at his watch j 
“a high fever. We must proceed to more 
heroic treatment. Guzko — ” 

“Sahib,” rising from his kneeling posture 
where he had been extinguishing the fire on 
the altar before the idol. 


253 


They Agree to Agree 

“Prepare a bath, and then bring up all 
the ice there is in the refrigerator and put it 
in the tub. We must reduce this fever.” 

Again the sufferer broke out into groans 
and protestations ; but they paid no attention, 
and Guzko departed hastily on his mission. 

“Do not excite yourself,” said Arthur, 
calmly, holding the struggling invalid ; “it 
will only aggravate your fever. Ah ! there 
you are,” as Nita entered the room, her arms 
laden with books and bottles. “Uncle is 
already much better.” 

“I’m not ; Pm worse,” howled the dying 
man. 

“The fever has mounted to his brain,” 
said Arthur. “I am going to give him an 
iced bath to reduce it.” 

“I have always heard mother say that a 
mustard-plaster at the base of the brain was 
excellent to draw away the blood from the 
head. See how flushed he is.” 

And in truth Uncle Oliver’s countenance 
was as read as a lobster with the exertion of 
screaming at his nephew. 


254 A Bargain in Souls 

‘‘Yes, I think half-a-dozen mustard-plasters 
would be just the thing,’’ said Arthur, after 
a moment’s thought. “Three on the chest, 
two on the hack of his neck, and —oh, yes, 
one on the top of the head. The time has 
come for the most heroic measures.” 

“Oh, look at him !” cried Nita, as the suf- 
ferer began to struggle and scream at the 
thought of what was coming. 

“I shall have to tie his hands. You see, 
he is crazed with delirium,” said Arthur, 
calmly; and he proceeded to tie the old 
man’s wrists together with a silk handker- 
chief in spite of Uncle Oliver’s profane 
protestations. Nita had meanwhile pre- 
pared the mustard-plasters and proceeded 
to decorate him with them. Arthur having 
threatened to put one over his mouth if he 
persisted in screaming, silence was finally 
restored ; in fact the sick man was almost 
too much exhausted to do anything but groan. 

“His face is still very much flushed,” said 
Nita, who had been consulting the medical 
book, “Let us begin right here on this 


They Agree to Agree 


255 


chapter on fevers, and work our way through ; 
by that means we shall be sure of hitting on 
the right remedy.” 

It required all Arthur’s strength at this 
juncture from keeping Uncle Oliver from 
bounding out of bed ; but the young guardian 
was strong, and such a withered old man 
was like a toy in his hands. 

“A very sensible idea, Nita. Let us be- 
gin at once.” 

“There are several ways of bleeding,” 
referring to the book ; “but if we try them 
all at once we shall be sure to hit the right 
one.” 

“A very wise conclusion.” 

“I think if you bled him on the soles of 
his feet, on the chest, and put a dozen leeches 
on each temple, it will do for the present.” 

“Oh, why did I not die before you came 
in ? Unhappy man !” murmured the sufferer. 

“Now, while you are getting your lancet 
ready — ” said Nita. 

“I suppose an ink-eraser will do just as 
asked Vancss. 


256 


A Bat' gain in Souls 

‘^Oh, certainly ; the only thing necessary 
is to have it sharp and make a deep incision, 
BO that there will be a good flow of blood.” 

“I understand perfectly.” 

“Good-bye, uncle, for the present,” said 
Nita, bending over him lovingly, ‘‘You will 
be well in a few days, thanks to our care. 
While Arthur is bleeding you I shall be 
preparing a nice tea that will make you 
sleep. It’s made from my dear mother’s 
own recipe, and has been handed down for 
many generations in our family. It doesn’t 
smell nice, but then it is all the more certain 
to do you good. It contains pennyroyal, 
molasses, boiled onions, cloves, and — and — 
Dear me ! have I forgotten what the com- 
pound was? Arthur — ” 

“Yes, my dear.” 

“Is there some kind of stuff with a Latin 
name beginning asa— assa.” ' 

“Assafoetida.” 

“Oh, yes, that must be it — assafoetida. 
Now keep quiet, dear uncle, until I return. 


They Agree to Agree 257 

You are to take three pints every hour until 
well and she bounded away gayly on her 
mission of mercy. 

“Arthur,” gasped the uncle, feebly. 

“Yes, yes,” bending over him. 

“Kill me before Nita gets back.” 

And he sank exhausted among the pillows. 

But Arthur paid small attention to the 
old man’s ravings. Having bled him in four 
or five places, and after Nita had forced him 
to swallow several quarts of her decoction, 
which had become burnt in the brewing, 
they ran him up and down the room for a 
half-hour, having read in the book that vio- 
lent exercise was excellent to restore circu- 
lation. 

Then, having plunged him in the bath of 
cracked ice, he was finally put back to bed 
more dead than alive. 

“Now you can take a short nap,” said 
Nita, “and you will find yourself much better. 
We will rouse you in half an hour, because 
too much sleep is not good in your feeble 
condition. You might fall into a comatose 


17 


258 A Bargain in Souls 

state from which there will be no waking 
you. In a half-hour we will return and re- 
new the treatment, because so far we have 
only gone a page in the chapter on fevers.” 

The uncle groaned and rolled his face 
toward the wall, too feeble to make any re- 
tort ; while husband and wife went down- 
stairs together, well satisfied with their work. 

The excitement and worry of the last hour 
had exhausted Nita. She sank down on the 
sofa with a sigh of fatigue. 

‘T am afraid all of our efforts have been 
in vain,” she murmured, plaintively. ‘‘He 
seems to be slowly sinking.” 

“And with him dies our secret,” said her 
companion, with a groan. 

“It is all your fault,” said Nita. “If you 
had never brought him into the house, our 
lives would not now be bound by this terrible 
bargain. We could call our souls our own.” 

“But it was you,” angrily, “who worried 
him into the ceremony of changing them. I 
was indifferent. Yon have only yourself to 
blame that you have made your life wretched, 


They Agree to Agree 259 

and dragged me down as well. Think of the 
future before us. You have been well punished 
for your discontent with your lot. 

But Nita was too choked with tears at that 
moment to make a reply. 

“At least we have seen each other in our 
true lights,” she said, after a moment’s 
silence. “We understand each other better 
than ever before.” 

“Much good may that do us in the years 
to come ! Better a life-time of ignorance than 
those few weeks that have given us knowl- 
edge.” 

“A nice ornament to the gentle sex you 
have made !” said Nita freezingly.” 

“A beautiful example of manhood you 
have displayed!” growled her companion. 
“But for you, this bargain in souls would 
never been brought about.” 

“Don’t, don’t 1” cried Nita, in a flood of 
tears. “Don’t try and make me feel more 
miserable than I am. If I have done wrong, 
let these tears show my deep repentance. 
This is no time for mutual recriminations. 


260 ^ Bargain in Souls 

We share a common danger. Let us de- 
clare a truce until Uncle Oliver’s fate has 
been decided.” 

“Perhaps you are right ; but oh !” with a 
pang of recollection, “if I could only have 
my beautiful life back again ! Never would 
I murmur at fortune, if it were only restored.” 

“I deserve my fate,” said Nita, with a fresh 
flood of tears, “I had everything to make life 
happy, but I was spoiled and discontented. 
The punishment is just, but it is hard, so 
hard to bear !” wringing her hands despair- 
ingly. 

“Our repentance comes all too late.” 
groaned Arthur. “We should have thought 
of this before we made that terrible 
bargain.” 

He paused in the midst of his lamentations 
at the sight of a strange apparition. Hus- 
band and wife shrieked at the sight ; and in- 
deed it was enough to appal the stoutest 
heart. It was Uncle Oliver, or his ghost — 
Uncle Oliver swathed in mustard-plasters, 
and his brow crowned with leeches, his feet 


*rhey Agree to Agree 261 

wrapped in numerous white cloths. He 
tottered to a chair and sank into it with a 
groan. 

“How imprudent of you !” murmured Nita, 
rushing to his side. “Arthur, we must carry 
him back to his room.” 

“Never !” exclaimed the patriarch, smiting 
his heard. “Not until I have had my say. My 
children, I give in ; you have conquered me. 
I have deceived you.” 

“Deceived us 

“Yes, I am not sick — that is, I was not 
until you began to treat me, or rather mal- 
treat me, for the fever,” making a wry face. 
“The thought that Nita might arrive at 
any moment and force me to take another 
quart of her tea, or that Arthur would try to 
dissect me again with a dull pen-knife, de- 
cided me to demand a truce of hostilities 
while some life still remained in my poor 
old body.” 

“Explain,” said the nephew ; “you speak 
in riddles.” 

The old man cleared his throat and said : 


262 A Bargain in Souls 

‘‘I feigned sickness to frighten you. I 
did not think you had been punished enough,” 
directing his glance particularly towardsNita. 
“But you turned the tables on me complete- 
ly, and almost made me wish that death would 
indeed come to my relief. What was intended 
only as a joke came near having a serious 
ending. Another day of such treatment and I 
should be ready for the last rites. I have come 
down here to propose a truce ; to make a new 
bargain with you — to give you back your souls 
if in return I am permitted to live in peace 
the little while Allah permits me to remain 
on earth.” 

“Agreed,” cried the husband and wife, 
almost in Ihe same breath. 

The sage smiled. 

“Are you quite sure this time that you 
will not repent the exchange ?” 

“We have suffered enough,” said Arthur. 
“Give us back our old lives, and we will 
never murmur at our lot again.” 

“I have spoken ill of you, uncle,” cried 
Nita, kneeling at his feet. “I have said 


They Agree to Agree 263 

cruel things that I now regret. I am well 
punished. I have learned a severe lesson 
during these weeks. Kestore me to my old 
place and you will never have cause to regret 
it.” 

“This experience has not been in vain,” 
said the sage. “Verily the mummy’s secret 
was not without value. It has given you an 
insight into your own lives, and shown you 
how you had despised the most generous 
gifts of God. Let this lesson suffice. Be 
content to live out with unmurmuring pa- 
tience your several lives in that condition 
it has pleased the Creator to call you to, con- 
tent to sup on honey and on rue, for love 
shall make the bitter sweet.” 

They kneeled like two penitents at his 
feet, thinking dreamily of the sweet hope 
held out to them by his words. And the 
sage drew from his sleeve the famous box 
and the tattered scroll ; and, again, as on 
that fateful day, the lights flickered in the 
clouds of incense, and the pale blue flames 
danced above the stooping figures, and then 


m 


A Bargain in Souls 


the mist of perfume floated away into thin 
air, and the patriarch, raising his hands 
towards heaven, murmured : 

“Allah Achbar ! It is done.’^ 

Nita opened her eyes with a glad cry. A 
great feeling of joy and rest came over her 
as she looked up into Arthur’s eyes brimmed 
with happy tears. Then, hiding her charm- 
ing face in his bosom, she cried, “A — Arthur !” 
“Darling !” pressing her lips. 

“I — I am so glad we are ws again !” 


THE END, 



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